It's Monday morning and your alarm pulls you from your sleep, which you didn't get a lot of last night. Because you work in the Criminal Investigations Division CID , you get to work a day shift with weekends off, which is great. This past weekend, though, you were the detective on call, and it was a busy one. You're holding three new cases before the workweek has even started. You ease out of bed, shower, shave and put on a shirt and tie.
You can't decide if you miss wearing a uniform; on the one hand, you'll always be a patrol officer at heart. You grab a travel mug of coffee, strap on your sidearm, and head to the office in your unmarked car. At first, you were excited about getting an unmarked car, until you realized that instead of the sleek new Dodge Charger you were expecting you were issued a 5-year-old, low-end import to avoid conspicuity.
CID, you were told, tries to avoid standard patrol car models so that they're not as easily pegged as cop cars. When you get to the office and check your voicemail, you have five new messages, all from the family of the victim from the murder scene you worked Saturday night.
They're understandably hurt, shocked and desperate for answers, and they're calling with what they believe are more leads and evidence for you to look into.
You return the calls and take down the information, which turns out to be promising. You assure them you're going to do everything you can to get answers, and you give them your mobile number so they can get in touch with you more easily.
It's a small gesture and an even smaller comfort, but it brings a little more relief to the family and lets them know you really do care about their plight. After you get off the phone, you look through your case files and plan your day. You've got five witnesses you need to interview, as well as the primary suspect from Saturday's murder scene. He "lawyered up" and has declined to answer questions to date, but his attorney reached out to you and said he's ready to talk.
You set up the interview for late afternoon to give you time to talk to the witnesses and get as much extra information as you can to help you look for holes in the suspect's story. You spend the rest of the day making notes in your file, reviewing photos and contacting the crime scene unit to follow up on an older case. You're hoping for some breakthroughs from either the DNA analysts or the fingerprint examiners or, better yet, both.
You don't hold out a lot of hope because you know that—despite how TV shows portray CSI cases—it usually takes months, not hours, to get any kind of actionable evidence analysis back from the lab. Part of. Getting the Job. More Law Enforcement Jobs. It Comes With the Job. Table of Contents Expand. Table of Contents. Detective Salary. Job Outlook. Work Environment. Work Schedule. Comparing Similar Jobs. Learn about our editorial policies.
Updated on July 16, How to Get the Job Become a police officer Detectives usually begin their careers as police officers and are later promoted to detective roles. Gain experience Police officers who wish to become detectives should work with detectives to the greatest extent possible.
Apply Police officers are usually considered for detective roles after they've gained experience. These people often solve mysteries or settle personal disputes on a per-project basis. Discovering a biological parent often falls into this realm, as does setting up surveillance on a spouse — these activities often take a bit of sleuthing, but would not be appropriate for the police. Should a private investigator uncover evidence of an actual crime, however, he or she is usually required by law to turn those findings over to law enforcement.
This is not to say that private detectives have no role in crime solving. A family of a missing or deceased person might engage the services of a private investigator to continue making inquiries, for instance.
These inquiries might pose possible solutions to a crime or provide enough evidence for police to reopen a case. Large corporations occasionally hire detectives to conduct internal investigations in cases of suspected fraud or embezzlement. Going directly to the police in these situations can be embarrassing for a company and can draw unwanted publicity, particularly if there is not actually any wrongdoing.
Even Sherlock Holmes needs help sometimes! Part 5. Find a mystery. What strange happenings are going on around you? Maybe a family member has lost something important. Perhaps a cat has gone AWOL. Or there might be a mystery at school, your local sports club or at a friend's house.
Look for clues. Inspect the area where the theft, loss, incident, etc. What can you find there? Do things look as they should or can you see small details that don't gel with normality?
If you really do find something that seems to break the law or is dangerous, contact the police immediately. The steps in this article are just for fun and for mainly helping people find things or fix small issues. They are not intended to involve you in anything that requires real detective and law enforcement skills. You can, but you will need more training.
For example, try going for a job if you're old enough. Or you can just read books that help you or look on the internet. Not Helpful 23 Helpful Pay attention to seemingly little things, like tapping feet or hands, messing with hair or similar body language that might signal nervousness. Also, people who are lying might avoid eye contact and usually wouldn't use contractions.
Not Helpful 25 Helpful Good detectives are calm, friendly, and observant, and are able to react well to situations that make others panic. Detectives should also have good decision making and deduction skills. Not Helpful 13 Helpful Dust the area where you think the culprit left their fingerprints with some powder and a soft brush. Then, take a piece of clear tape and press it down over the area.
After a few seconds, lift it up. If you have troubles seeing the fingerprints on the tape, hold it up to a light.
Not Helpful 24 Helpful The Sherlock Holmes books are a great place to start. For a more modern approach, the Moriaty series by Anthony Horowitz puts a new spin on the classic. Not Helpful 18 Helpful You can learn to observe behaviors, clothing choice, and details that other people don't generally notice.
Taking note of these things, you can come to some pretty reliable assumptions about people, but you won't strictly be able to learn anything but the most basic facts about a person without doing some more in depth investigation. Not Helpful 15 Helpful
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