Efforts to modernize and improve policing are not new. A push to professionalize police took place in the United States at the turn of the century and again during the civil rights era of the 60s and 70s. As a former journalist who covered law enforcement and participated in police training to build understanding and relationships with law enforcement, the author brings those experiences to her current career as a communication professor at a college with a two-year police science program. In studying the current challenges facing police and the communities they serve, the author found that early challenges in the history of college programs for police still need to be adequately addressed. This paper will explain the beginning of higher education programs for police officers, significant developments in programs, and a brief look at how programs are still attempting to deal with the same challenges that led to the first programs.