Because policing and social work are more like development and systems administrators. I live in a city that requires police officers to have graduate degrees

Because policing and social work are more like development and systems administrators. I live in a city that requires police officers to have graduate degrees before they are permanently hired. Most police don’t have their graduate degrees when initially hired, so they have to go back to school and earn them to get a permanent offer. Because local universities have great social work departments and law schools (and sub par criminal justice departments), most cops get degrees in law or social work. The local university had a program that offers both, so many cops do that. So i can tell you from experience that police officer/lawyer/social worker hybrids are a thing. And it works out very well.