The educational requirements to become a police officer in the United States depend on the police force you want to join. However, to join federal law enforcement agencies, you must have a college degree. To join state, city, or county law enforcement, you must have a high school diploma or GED. To join the state police, you must have 60 college credits, and for city or county you must have 45 college credits. These are the general academic requirements to become a police officer. However, the requirements may differ depending on the law enforcement agency you want to join.
A four-year college degree in any field of study will qualify you for a job with most federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. However, if you do not have a college degree, most federal agencies will accept three years of responsible work experience. For example, the secret services will require you to have experience in criminal investigation while, on the other hand, the US Marshals service will accept you if you have three years of experience in a supervisory position. Serving three years as a law enforcement officer will not necessarily qualify you to join particular federal agencies.
The educational requirements will really depend on the agency you are interested in joining. Just like the educational requirements to join the criminal investigation agency will differ from those to become a US Marshal. If you want to join a particular agency, you need to check what their educational requirements are. Most federal agencies require you to complete the required educational training for each field among federal agencies.
In some agencies, for example the FBI, there are several departments and each department specializes in handling different types of crimes. This agency deals with terrorism, foreign counterintelligence, cybercrime, organized crime, white collar crime, and a host of other federal crimes. Therefore, if you want to join this agency, you must be qualified in an area of expertise. Joining cybercrime would require an educational qualification in information technology, and joining white-collar crime would require a qualification in business administration.
Once you join the police force, you can apply for training in a particular field of interest. However, it will be your superiors to recommend you for that training or not. Of course, the agency you want to join will also assess whether or not you are suitable to be trained by them.
