who is considered the father of american policing
August Vollmer In the ensuing years, Vollmer's reputation as the "father of modern law enforcement" grew.[1] He was the first chief to require that police officers attain college degrees, and persuaded the University of California to teach criminal justice. In 1916, UC Berkeley established a criminal justice program, headed by Vollmer.[2] At Berkeley, he taught O.W. Wilson, who went on to become a professor and continued efforts to professionalize policing, by being the first to establish the first police science degree at Municipal University of Wichita (now Wichita State University).[3][4] This is often seen as the start of criminal justice as an academic field.