Police Science Associate of Science

The Police Sciences Associate of Science program guides students toward careers in law enforcement and policing, the courts and the law, and state, local, and private corrections. The Program provides a seamless transition for students who wish to attain the Bachelor's Degree in Police Science. The Program also complies with the Modern Policing Degree requirements. A.B. 89 requires all Police and Sheriff's patrol officers in California to obtain a Modern Policing degree. Coursework: A minimum of 59 semester units in the major with a grade of ‘C’ or better while maintaining a minimum grade point average of at least 2.0 in all California State University transferable coursework.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the program students will be able to analyze the key concepts/theories of past and current practices of the criminal justice system;

assess historical and present day diversity and human rights issues pertaining to the criminal justice system;

apply ethical and professional standards of conduct in a law enforcement setting.

Enrollment Projections

The Public Safety pathway currently has a consistent 1,600 unduplicated students in the Criminal Justice program – a local degree in which students are meeting the lower-level requirements for the proposed PSCI program. This includes approximately 800 first generation college students per year – Note: AB89focuses on underserved populations that often are first generation college students. 

For the year 2020-2021 there were 1,533 students enrolled at Bakersfield College who declared majors in either the local Criminal Justice AA or the Administration of Justice Transfer degree. This enrollment reflects an increase of 24% since 2018-2019. A large majority of these students express interest in obtaining both a bachelor’s degree in the criminal justice area and obtaining a career as a law enforcement officer. During the 2020-2021 academic year 210students graduated with degrees in either the Administration of Justice transfer degree or the Criminal Justice AA. 

An additional target group of students are those enrolled in Early College/Dual Enrollment Criminal Justice courses at area high schools. The majority of these students will go on to complete either the local AA or the transfer degree at Bakersfield College and would have a potential interest in advanced policing. In 2020-2021 there were 201 individual high school students in the BC dual enrollment criminal justice program. The number of students increased by 20% to 241 for the year 2021-2022. We estimate35 additional students per year enrolling in the Criminal Justice pathway, thus building this pipeline for the Police Science baccalaureate program. 

Based on these data, estimated 5-year projections for cohort head count ,FTES, and revenue include the following: 

The Police Sciences Associate of Science program's goals are:

1. To prepare students for careers in law enforcement and policing, the courts and the law, and state, local, and private corrections. 

2. To prepare students to transition to the Police Science Bachelor of Science degree program. 

Upon successful completion of the program students will be able to:

 a. analyze the key concepts/theories of past and current practices of the criminal justice system;

 b. assess historical and present day diversity and human rights issues pertaining to the criminal justice system;

 c. apply ethical and professional standards of conduct in a law enforcement setting.

Display of Program Requirements

In addition to the core courses, the student must complete the CSU Breadth General Education Pattern.