O.W. Wilson and the College Police Cadet School in Wichita: A Historical Case Study

• In Event: Police Strategies, Issues, and Perspectives, Past and Present.

Abstract

In the early 1930s, the renowned police reformer O.W. Wilson, who held the position of Chief of Police in Wichita, Kansas from 1928 to 1939, instituted a college cadet school designed to provide practical training to police recruits. This training was augmented by college courses intended to broaden their global perspective. The pioneering college cadet school, established in 1934 through a collaboration between the police department and the University of Wichita (now Wichita State University), is the focus of this paper. It presents the findings of a historical case study that explores the complexities involved in the school's founding, as well as the curriculum and procedures that defined it. By the time Wilson departed from Wichita in 1939, the majority of the department's 110 officers had obtained college degrees, a remarkable achievement for that era. Furthermore, Wilson's Cadet School was acknowledged as the premier institution of its kind in the nation.

Author

• Michael L. Birzer, Wichita State University