Expert: Jack Toomey - 7/5/2011

Question
QUESTION: hello my name is justine and im 17 years old, and want to become a detective. I wanted to become a detective since I was 12 years old. It stated by watching Americas most wanted and being able to bring justice. The case that opened my eyes towards becoming a detective is the Casy Anthony case. Im going to graduate next year I need help getting started I understand that I need to become a police officer.
Thankyou for you time.

ANSWER: Justine,

After you graduate from high school go on to college and get your degree.  It can be in anything.  When you are 21 you are eligible to apply for a position on a police department.  This is a little tricky because some departments don't hire many 21-22 year olds because they have not matured yet.

If you are hired then you would go to the police academy and then upon graduation you will be assigned to a station.  After riding with senior officers for a period of time you may be considered skilled enough to ride by yourself.  After a period of time (maybe 5 -7 years depending on the department) you could be eligible to compete for the position of detective.

Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: When you say go to college and get a degree in anything, I plan to go to a school for criminal justice. For example lets say ITT Tech school would that be benifical. As far as being a detective there are different branches such as homicide, sex crimes,.. as of right now I leaning towards sex crimes and finding missing people. As a detective to you face all these types of cases or do you just focus on one based on what unit your in because im intrigued by everything to homicide missing people etc.

Answer
The problem is that everyone and his brother thinks that they need a degree in criminal justice.  Guess what?  The police could care less what your degree is in.  There is nothing that you will learn in a criminal justice classroom that you won't learn in the police academy.  Many, many people get these criminal justice degrees and are stuck with them because they cannot find employment and are not qualified for police work.

Before you do anything drastic you should know that only about 1% of those who apply for police work are actually hired because somewhere along the way they are eliminated.

You really should think about getting a degree in whatever interests you at this time.  If you are hired its not a matter of choosing what specialty like sex crimes, etc.  It depends on how you do in uniform, your ability to make arrests on the street, and recommendations of your supervisors.