A major problem in a large country like the US is that there is no consistency of standards between jurisdictions. A large city like New York or LA may require college degrees in criminology, whereas smaller towns that find it difficult to hire will take pretty much anyone with a pulse and a high-school diploma.
Personally I think all police recruits should be required to go through training dealing with empathy, mental-health issues, and de-escalation. As I understand it the police academies themselves indoctrinate recruits into a “shoot first, ask questions later” philosophy that is difficult to break once it is ingrained. They are taught that they need to be “in charge” of any situation at all times, which often leads to quick escalation of any incidents to which they are called, and a superiority complex over the people whom they are supposed to protect and serve.
Lastly, more policing in local communities on foot or bicycle as opposed to sitting in cruisers all shift has been proven to better relations between the community and the police, to increase the chance that the community will cooperate in crime investigations, and to reduce the chances that officers see everyone in their community as a potential criminal.
That is very misleading. Most police in the states go through the 13-19 weeks training followed by nearly a year as a probationary officer who is not allowed on watch without a senior officer and many precincts require additional training above the basic policing course.
I think you left out the field training part that comes after the classroom training
I know plenty of cops that have a degree on top of training in the academy
Norway has exponentially fewer people to police