How long to become a detective?

[truller]

hi everyone, i've been searching on this forum, but i couldn't find an answer for this question. once you become a police officer, what is the minimun time (if there is a certain period of time) to become a detective? what are the steps to become one of them?

Thank you for your time.

[Kimble]

hi everyone, i've been searching on this forum, but i couldn't find an answer for this question. once you become a police officer, what is the minimun time (if there is a certain period of time) to become a detective? what are the steps to become one of them?

Thank you for your time.

Expect 3-5 years, varies from department to department.

[retdetsgt]

Expect 3-5 years, varies from department to department.

+1 In mine, it's a civil service position and promotion. You have to have 3 years minimum to take the test. You should wait longer though. You learn how to be a cop in uniform. Detectives is for those who have really honed those skills.

[Nole795]

You know what the difference is between a patrol officer and a detective?












About 500 donuts. :D

[truller]

thank you everyone for answering my question. i hope soon become a police officer and later a detective. that is what i want to do for the rest of my life.

[Roger Dat]

You will find that your perspectives of police work will change when you get hired on this job and get a little time unbder your belt. You may want to become a detective moe then ever or you may decide to go a different route.

[truller]

i am 100% sure that i want to be an investigator. However, i still have dougt about what kind of agency. Moreover, i have a huge concern about being a federal which is my first goal and being boring with too much paperwork and few action. Had anyone here been a local or state officer and than became federal? please bring me light.

[Samuel]

i am 100% sure that i want to be an investigator. However, i still have dougt about what kind of agency. Moreover, i have a huge concern about being a federal which is my first goal and being boring with too much paperwork and few action. Had anyone here been a local or state officer and than became federal? please bring me light.

I think maybe you need to research a little further (a lot more) into the position(s) you THINK you want to do "for the rest of your life" ....

Or you could become an actor and then you'll be able to do everything you see "them" do on TV...

[retdetsgt]

I still wanna be a steam locomotive engineer... Or maybe an Indian chief, I haven't really decided yet.

[ParadeRest]

In the NYPD, it's a discretionary promotion. The easiest way is to get into an investigative assignment (Narcotics, Crime Scene, Detective Squad, Auto Crime, etc) and you get the promotion within 18 months. Doing something heroic and newsworthy might get you the shield also.

Most people without connections go into narcotics and do the dirty work for a while to get the shield.

[Kimble]

i am 100% sure that i want to be an investigator. However, i still have dougt about what kind of agency. Moreover, i have a huge concern about being a federal which is my first goal and being boring with too much paperwork and few action. Had anyone here been a local or state officer and than became federal? please bring me light.

I was a local officer prior to going federal. If you are concerned about "being boring with too much paperwork and few action" investigations is probably not what you're looking for. Depending on the investigative division you're in, you might get to kick down doors and make arrests a lot (ex: working on a fugitive detail or US Marshals task force, narcotics, etc.), or you might be in a desk most of the time going through records and documents (ex: economic crimes).

I had high hopes of being a "federal agent" for years, and now that I am one I can tell you patrol work is much more fun if action and adrenaline are what you're after. Investigations is a good fit for me, and professionally it was the right move, but a day won't go by that I don't miss being in uniform and working patrol, at least a little bit. It was good times. :cool:

[retdetsgt]

Most people without connections go into narcotics and do the dirty work for a while to get the shield.

That's why I like the fact we do it through promotional exams. No connections are needed.

I had a great time in uniform, learned a whole lot and wouldn't have traded the experience for anything, but I really found my niche in detectives. I've always been a bull****ter and that was the perfect place for someone like me. I loved doing suspect interviews, that was a great challenge to me.

I never minded writing search warrant affidavits and could dictate one off the top of my head quite easily after a few months. I even wrote a couple of applications for wire taps which were incredibly complicated, but a great learning experience.

I admit I had trouble with details at complicated crime scenes like some homicides, I tended to lose patience. Something I worked on all the time.

But the bottom line is I learned all these basic skills as a uniform cop. I don't think I would have ever been as successful if I hadn't spent the years I did in harness out on the street. Getting down and dirty in uniform with street people taught me a lot in how they think, what they will react to and what's important and not important to them. I used to spend a lot of time chatting with some real lowlifes out there at 2 in the morning and establishing a relationship. I would have never gotten that education starting out in a desk job.

Consequently, later on as a detective, I was able to sit in an interview room with these same types and make them think I really understood where they were coming from and establish trust. That's nothing you can learn in a classroom.

[danninator]

No time line here. But in my department it is NOT a permanent position you get rotated in from patrol and spend 3 years there then rotate out... No one from det. supervisor all the way down to the most junior spends any more than 3 years in.



If you go to county prosecutors office you're classified as a detective right off the bat.


A lot of people have a romatic notion of what a detective is. Some of it is true, a lot is not.

[Kimble]

A lot of people have a romatic notion of what a detective is. Some of it is true, a lot is not.

Very true!

[retdetsgt]

No time line here. But in my department it is NOT a permanent position you get rotated in from patrol and spend 3 years there then rotate out... No one from det. supervisor all the way down to the most junior spends any more than 3 years in.

That's too bad. About the time someone is really starting to get experienced at it, they're transferred out.

Our detectives are in training status their first full year with a FTO assigned to them. They're transferred around to several details to work under different FTO's and learn the investigation of property and then person crimes. We take our detective division seriously.