I have played several games in my Steam library for more hours than it takes to become a police officer.

To become an American police officer.

Other countries have somewhat higher requirements

• Norway - 4500 hours

• Finland - 4500 hours

• India - 4000 hours

• Germany - 4000 hours

• Australia - 3500 hours

• Spain - 2880 hours

• United Kingdom - 2250 hours (plus if they want to carry a gun significant additional hours)

• Canada - 2080 hours

• New Zealand - 1924 hours

i've played over 12,000 hours of Fallout 4.

I'll take my PhD now, thx

It's also not just the amount of training they receive, but the content of the training. When you learn in Police academy that 1) everyone is armed and dangerous and 2) everyone is out to kill you, you tend to be more aggressive. And this is drilled into their skulls with the equivalent of a jackhammer. No wonder you get cops that are completely devoid of empathy, reason and humanity, but rather trigger happy assholes who will use violence for every single issue.

Police in Norway have to have a bachelor's degree in policing.

https://www.politihogskolen.no/en/about-us/our-campuses/bodo/ for anyone who wants to become a police officer in Norway.

Compare that to the federal standard 3-5 years of University-like education with loads of theory and practice parts they need in my country to be a basic police(wo)man. Topics like deescalation techniques, basic communication in several languages, and psychological training are integral parts of the curriculum. And much more important than knowing how to shoot or beat up someone.

While I agree that police need more training and psychological evaluations... How much of this is because job training schools lobbied for needless licenses and things to be covered under those licenses? Does someone really need 1600 hours of training to cut hair?

Not only that, cops fought for... and WON... the right to not hire people who are too smart:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/too-smart-to-be-a-cop/

I spent more hours playing Skyrim and Warframe.

If you had STUDIED instead you would now legally be able to beat your wife kill minorities and watch kids die because it's too scawy!

the time i wasted playing TF2 alone could have made me a cop in 5 states.

Can I just say that this is the most interesting table layout I’ve seen? The column headers (state names) are the center column?!

Am I the terraria police?

I can't really comment on how much is a sufficient amount of training for law enforcement, cuz fuck if I know. There's certainly no shortage of problems from cops, but is the root of that problem their training? I suspect it has more to do with the quality of applicant / screening in the hiring process. There are a handful of kinds of people who'd be interested in a career in law enforcement, and most of those are the kind of person who shouldn't be trusted with ANY authority.

You can't train someone out of being a shitty person.

Tbh the column on the left is the one that elicits more of a 'seriously?' from me. Why in the everliving FUCK would I need more than a couple youtube videos worth of insight + a cert showing you understand how and why to clean sharp shit between clients to give hair cutting or nail painting a shot? Result might not be pretty right out the gate; but legally speaking, who cares? Price it low until your skills increase.

What is an electric sign specialist?

Wtf? Why does an interior designer need training?

Isn’t it just like picking colors and furniture?

I never realized Louisiana looks like an obese arm smoking a cigarette

I won't bring up the /played on my WoW account 😬

Somehow Florida made it highest in this list. Let that sink in...

Well obviously. You have to live with a bad haircut for at least a few weeks, what could a police officer do that would affect your life as much as that?

Dude fuck it I'm just gonna sign up.

I'm somewhere between FL interior designer and MI electrical sign specialist on Destiny 2.

So I could be the dictator of a civilization?

Had more hours running from cops and doing mayhem in GTA. Never hurt any dog.

TIL Michigan's state outline looks like a floating hand patting a baby T-rex's head

I have more hours in Payday 2 shooting cops than they took to train…nice

And you are officially less of a harm and more productive for society. Thank you for your service.

Til barbers have required training

Damn, I’d be like a ranked officer if I’d transfer all my Cities Skylines hours!

Interior design is a regulated profession?