This master’s essay presents a study designed to investigate twelve police students’ability to handle academic writing conventions and to show critical-analyticalcompetence in their degree projects, which are written as part of the education atSweden’s three police academies. The education of police officers is not an academicone, and the students’ main focus is therefore on writing texts in the field of policediscourse. At the same time, scientific principles and critical thinking are emphasized intheir syllabus, but the question of how students handle the encounter with academicdiscourse has so far not been investigated. This, therefore, is the aim of the presentstudy. The texts have been analyzed according to the academic writing conventions ofreferencing, citation, hedging and boosting. By studying how these conventions areapplied, the writers’ stances become visible, which makes it possible to discern in whatways they remain critical-analytical to person, theory and content. The study shows thatpolice students can handle academic writing conventions to varying degrees, whichmeans that their texts differ in how well they function in an academic context. The factthat they do not fully master these conventions also makes it more difficult for thestudents to signal a critical stance, and only occasionally does their critical-analyticalcompetence show. The difficulties displayed by the police students can thus be viewedas general within the field of academic discourse. At the same time, the study showsthat the students do acquire a certain competence in textual as well as writingconventions, which they are able to transfer from police discourse. This, in turn,constitutes the didactic consequence of the study. If this were to be brought up as part ofthe educational program, the writing of a degree project might raise police students’awareness of different genres and further develop the competence necessary in theirprofession.