Eliminating the requirement that Pennsylvania State Police cadets have college credits in order to apply for trooper jobs was met with a burst of applications.
State officials said 137 of 297 people who applied in the two days after the announcement last week do not have college credits. It’s exactly what Gov. Josh Shapiro was hoping for when he lifted the requirement, TribLive.com reports.
“Our state police academy trains highly capable public servants who work hard to make our communities safer, but for nearly 30 years, college credit requirements have prevented some of the most capable and committed from being able to serve our commonwealth,” he said.
State Police Col. Christopher Paris said the rest of the requirements for securing a spot in a cadet class will not change. Those include a qualifying exam, polygraph test, background investigation, physical readiness test and medical and psychological evaluation.
“With this change, I do not expect to see a drop off in the quality or caliber of those who go on to successfully graduate from our training academy and become troopers,” he said. “We demand the highest standards and will continue to do so.”
