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PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of the Police Career Incentive Pay Program, or Quinn Bill, enacted in 1970 by the Massachusetts legislature, was to encourage police officers in participating municipalities to earn degrees in law enforcement and criminal justice and to provide educational incentives through salary increases.
The enactment of such legislation and the expansion of criminal justice as an academic field can be attributed to the 1967 report of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (the Johnson Crime Commission). A predominant theme of the Commission's reports was that the quality and effectiveness of American criminal justice would be decisively improved by upgrading the educational credentials of its practitioners. In 1968, the Commission's recommendations were underwritten with Congress' authorization of the Law Enforcement Assistance Act (LEAA). Congress created a program that contained elements of the G.I. Bill and the ROTC program; LEAA made federal funds available to law enforcement, judicial and correctional personnel to return to school, and to assist college students preparing for careers in the criminal justice system. In response to student demand and the influx of Federal funding, colleges and universities established degree programs called police science, criminology, criminal science, and many others. Enrollments skyrocketed through the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. Several insightful summaries of the development of criminal justice higher education are available (see, for example, Ward and Webb, The Quest for Quality, 1984).
Across the United States during the last quarter century, criminal justice academic programs have been transformed from ''police science'' programs to multidisciplinary criminal justice degree programs that emphasize empirical research, development and testing of theory, and the examination of policy-relevant questions across the criminal justice system and at the intersection of criminal justice and other social institutions.
By THO
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Quinn bill statute info Part 1
POLICE CAREER INCENTIVE PAY PROGRAM (QUINN BILL) STATUTE:
Chapter 41: Section 108L. Police career incentive pay program; salary increases; reimbursement of cities or towns.
Section 108L. There is hereby established a career incentive pay program offering base salary increases to regular full-time members of the various city and town police departments, uniformed members of the department of state police appointed under said section ten, state police detectives appointed under section ten of said chapter twenty-two C, as a reward for furthering their education in the field of policework.
Police career incentive base salary increases shall be predicated on the accumulation of points earned in the following manner: one point for each semester hour credit earned toward a baccalaureate or an associate degree; sixty points for an associate degree; one hundred and twenty points for a baccalaureate degree; and one hundred and fifty points for a degree of master or for a degree in law; provided, that said credits or degrees were earned in courses leading towards a degree in law enforcement or any course or degree program approved by the board of higher education prior to July 1st, 1976. All semester credits and degrees shall be earned in an educational institution accredited by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools or by the board of higher education, and shall be credited for the purpose of determining points under this section, notwithstanding the date of appointment of an individual to a position described in the first paragraph of this section.
The board of higher education is hereby authorized and directed to establish and maintain a list of approved courses leading to a degree in law enforcement.
Base salary increases authorized by this section shall be granted in the following manner: a three per cent increase for ten points so accumulated, a six per cent increase for twenty-five points, a ten per cent increase for forty points, a fifteen per cent increase for sixty points, a twenty per cent increase for one hundred and twenty points, and a thirty per cent increase for one hundred and fifty points so accumulated.
Any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section and provides career incentive salary increases for police officers shall be reimbursed by the commonwealth for one half the cost of such payments upon certification by the board of higher education. The board of higher education shall certify the amount of such reimbursement to be paid to such city or town from information filed on or before September first of each year with said board, on a form furnished by it, the chief of police, or one of similar rank, of the city or town police department. The board of higher education shall also certify the amount of the career incentive salary increases to be allocated to the members of the department of state police appointed under section ten of chapter twenty-two C from information filed with said board on or before September first of each year by the colonel of state police. Said information shall be filed on a form to be furnished by the board of higher education.
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Quinn bill statute info Part 2
Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, no such regular full-time police officer shall be entitled to such pay increase for points earned after September 1st, 1976; provided, however, that such police officer who is certified as of September 1st, 1976 in the police career incentive program leading to a degree in law enforcement shall only be granted further base salary increases of fifteen per cent for an associate's degree in law enforcement, or sixty points earned toward a baccalaureate degree in law enforcement, a twenty per cent increase for a baccalaureate degree in law enforcement, a thirty per cent increase for a master's degree in law enforcement or for a degree in law; or any police officer enrolled in any course or degree program approved by the board of higher education, prior to July 1st, 1976, shall only be granted further base salary increases of fifteen per cent for an associate's degree or sixty points earned toward a baccalaureate degree, a twenty per cent increase for a baccalaureate degree, and a thirty per cent increase for a master's degree or for a degree in law, provided further, that such percentage increase shall in total, including any previously earned increase, not exceed fifteen per cent for an associate's degree or sixty points earned toward a baccalaureate degree, twenty per cent for a baccalaureate degree, and thirty per cent for a master's degree or for a degree in law, provided further, that any regular full-time police officer commencing such incentive pay program after September 1st, 1976 shall be granted a base salary increase of ten per cent upon attaining an associate's degree in law enforcement or sixty points earned to a baccalaureate degree in law enforcement, a twenty per cent increase upon attaining a baccalaureate degree in law enforcement, and a twenty-five per cent increase upon attaining a master's degree in law enforcement or for a degree in law.
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Quinn bill statute info Part 3
AMENDMENT TO SECTION 108L:
Section 48 [SIGNED BY GOVERNOR]
This section pretains to the Quinn Bill. It amends Section 108L of Chapter 41 of the General Laws, the 2000 Official Edition, by adding the following paragraphs:
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, the Board of Higher Education shall establish quality guidelines, including, but not limited to, standards and review processes, for programs pursued for police career incentive pay increases under this section. Any such degree shall have been earned through a program approved by the Board of Higher Edcuation as meeting or exceeding academic standards established by the above-mentioned guidelines. Under no circumstances, shall said board certify any program which grants credits for the following: life experience; courses taught by instructors lacking appropriate educational degrees as determined by said board; and courses lacking appropriate concentration on academic and scholarly research. For the purposes of fulfilling the duties and obligations set forth in this section, the Board of Higher Education shall have the authority to conduct periodic reviews of criminal justice or law degree programs offered by independent regionally accredited colleges and universities. The Board of Higher Education shall only certify career incentive pay increases earned through the completion of programs that meet the board's guidelines, but police officers enrolled, prior to implementation of the quality guidelines, in degree granting programs in order to receive career incentive base salary adjustments shall, upon attainment of said degree, be eligible for certification by the board of higher education to receive career incentive base salary increases pursuant to this paragraph. police officers receiving career incentive base salary adjustments prior to the implementation of the quality guidelines shall continue to receive such base salary adjustments, as certified by said board, pursuant to the provisions of this section in effect prior to the quality guidelines established pursuant to this paragraph.
Section 179 [SIGNED BY GOVERNOR]
This section postpones Quinn Bill reimbursements to police officers until fiscal year 2005.
Notwithstanding section 108L of Chapter 41 of the General Laws any city or town which accepts the provisions of Section 108L of Chapter 41 of the General Laws after July 1, 2002 and provides annual career incentive bonus payments for police officers, shall not be reimbursed by the commonwealth for the commonwealth's share of those payments for either fiscal year 2003 or fiscal year 2004.
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