Criminal Justice Jobs – Law Enforcement – Detective/Investigator
Detective Job Description
Working as a detective you will have to gather and analyze the evidence to a crime in an attempt to solve it and catch the perpetrator. This will involve interviewing witnesses, suspects and victims and cross examining them looking for clues and discrepancies and trying to build up an accurate picture and time line of the events that took place.
Dressed in plain clothes, usually trousers and a shirt, you may also have to monitor suspects and track their movements and be a significant part of the arrest or raid.
As with police officers, detectives working in rural areas will more than likely deal with all levels of felony whereas city detectives will be more specialized and only certain types of cases such as homicide or robbery for example.
If you work as a detective at federal level then you will usually be known as an agent as oppose to a detective or investigator.
Detective Educational Requirements
In the majority of cases, in order to become a detective, you will have to be an American citizen and first have qualified as a police officer and been through the basic training and probationary period which is usually a minimum of 6 months.
The most common route to detective is by starting as a police officer (see police officer educational requirements) and working your way to internal promotion to detective through on the job experience and performance. The department will usually pay for any further educational requirements if you choose to go down this route.
It is possible however to go straight in at detective level providing you have adequate qualifications. You will need a minimum of a Bachelors degree in criminal justice or other relevant topic to be considered for the role. Additionally they will more than likely insist on you completing some intense in house training courses before you start your role.
Detective Salary
As a detective you can expect to earn anywhere from $40k – $90k depending on department, experience and area of expertise.
Detective Career Prospects
You have many different criminal justice career options open to you as a detective. You could look to progress to state and federal level roles and also to working as a detective in a major city and specializing in a particular area such as homicide for example.
Many detectives also diverse into becoming a private detective, often when they take early retirement. A private detective will usually work on a personal level and can often expect lots of missing persons, unsolved murder and infidelity type cases.
