Expert: Jack Toomey - 6/14/2009

Question
Officer Toomey,

     I am graduating next June. I am researching universities to pursue a career
with the federal government. I have done some substantial research and have
come up even more confused than I was at the beginning. I have always
thought a career as an FBI Special Agent was for me, however, upon reading
the job profile on the FBI Careers Homepage, I don't know if that is what I
truly want!

    I had planned on pursuing an A.A. degree at a college here at home in
Criminal Justice, and following up at the Virginia Commonwealth University
with a bachelor's in either Criminal Justice or Political Science. Yet, I've read
that its is not a recommended major for FBI recruitment. I simply want a job
in which I can investigate homicides and examine the crime scene as well as
aid in capturing the perpetuator. I do not know if being a Law Enforcement
Officer would be the path for me to follow or if there is a specific title or
career path to follow for that. I figured homicide detective would be fitting,
but I don't want to just be a cop and wait ten years to do that; I want to get
my bachelor's and create a well rounded background to get to that position
quicker.

Please help me!!! I need to know what career path to follow and what my best
options for a major are. Thank you so much!!!!  

Answer
Melissa,

I can't help you with any information about the FBI because as you probably read in my profile I was not an FBI agent and know nothing about their hiring requirements.

I get a ton of questions from students who somehow have been led to believe that they can go to some university that will teach them to become a detective.  There is no such university.  Police departments do not care what your degree is in.  All they care is that you have a degree.  Some of the most successful police officers/detectives that I know have degrees in such things as music, geology, and education.

You also are not going straight from the college classroom to the desk of a homicide detective.  That would be similar to taking anatomy classes in college and the next day setting up shop as a doctor.  It isn't going to happen.  What people do not realize, and television has caused this, that learning to be a detective is taught on the street.  It takes at least ten years of talking to people, interviewing witnesses, learning to tell who is lying and who isn't, learning intuition, what is suspicious and what is not, and a hundred other skills.  None of these things are learned in the classroom.  They are learned on the street.  Most detectives have degrees so you aren't really getting a big advantage by earning a college degree.  You certainly should get a degree to fall back on if you are not hired by a police department.  You might not be aware of it but only about 15 of those who apply to become police officers are actually hired.  The others, no matter what their education, are washed out somewhere along the way.

Many departments are going to civilian crime scene technicians.  Many of them are retired police officers who did the same job.  None of them come straight from college.  It would be impossible for that to happen.  Now to work in a lab you might want to think about a degree in science because many of the laboratory people have degrees in serology but they do not work the streets.  They stay in the lab and examine evidence.  I don't think that I could do that.