The Field

Police and other law enforcement officers perform many different duties that help keep us all safe and secure. On any given day, they might respond to an emergency call, help someone stuck on the side of the road, write a ticket, apprehend a suspect or just spend time building relationships with members of the community.

Those careers can be pretty challenging. To succeed, you have to be a strong communicator, critical thinker, physically fit, and capable of exercising empathy and discretion.

Our Program

Whatever you plan to do, Contra Costa College is a great place to start.

We offer associate degrees and certificates of achievement in corrections and law enforcement, as well as certificates in several areas of specialization.

But in our program, you will get more than an academic background. You’ll also get hands-on experience actually doing the things that peace officers do every day. You’ll learn how to use a baton and handcuffs, and how to take finger, foot and tire prints by actually doing it all. We even have a state-of-the-art firearms training simulator.

Our active board of advisers includes representatives from the Richmond, San Pablo, Concord, Brentwood and El Cerrito police departments as well as the county probation and District Attorney’s offices. In fact, a large percentage of the officers working at our local police departments started out right here.