Expert: Jack Toomey - 10/30/2007

Question
QUESTION: I'm a high school junior and I'm interested in being a homicide investigator. I
know you've said that you must be a patrol officer for many years before ever
being considered for the position. I also know that the FBI hires investigators
and special agents right out of college. My question is: is it a possibility to
gain experience as an FBI agent (instead of first being a law enforcement
officer) and then be considered for an investigative position in the police
department? If so, how many years of experience do you think I would need,
and what kind of position could I get?

ANSWER: Nicole,

  I am not sure what your aversion is to being a patrol officer however to answer your question it is usually done the other way around.  People are hired by police departments and then after several years decide that they want to be FBI agents and apply to that agency.  I have never heard of an FBI agent quitting the FBI and then being hired by a police department and then going through the entire process and eventually becoming a detective at age 50 or so.  You might not realize this but FBI agents are notoriously bad interviewers and interrogators and the reason is that they have never spent time dealing with real people meaning that they don't come into contact with people on the street, informants, the underworld types, gangsters, etc, all of whom police officers meet and talk to during the formative years of their careers.

  I hope that all of this is clear to you.  If not just ask.

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

QUESTION: Thanks for making that clear. I don't have any aversion to being a police
officer, I was just wondering if there was another way. My second question is,
if I was a patrol officer, about how many years of experience on the streets do
you think I would need before I would be a good candidate for an
investigative position?
I'm planning on going to college, so I was also wondering what I should study
to make myself a better candidate and increase my chances of being hired in
that field.

Answer
Nicole,

  It would depend on which police department that you went to work for and a series of factors that would fall into line that you don't have any control over.  If you were working in a large city on a department with thousands of officers you might get lost in a maze of politics and get on the wrong side of someone important and never make it into the detectives.  On the other hand you might meet the right person, make a good arrest here and there, and get into detectives within five years.  Then if you did well at the station level you might be mentioned as a good candidate after ten to fifteen years.  On the other hand if you went with a suburban department that has twenty homicides per year, a homicide section of ten detectives, yet a thousand uniformed officers it might take forever since there would be very little turnover.

  This might sound very discouraging but in real life there are a lot of politics in play and it is not necessarily a matter of being intellignent and ambitous.  Police work can and will cause your demeanor and outlook to change.  In no way, shape or form, is police work or homicide work like you might see it on tv or the movies.  Absolutely nothing that you envision is anywhere near to real life.

  Honestly it does not matter what you do in college.  You could have a degree in zoology and it won't make a bit if difference to police supervisors. What is important is that you write well and have a good command of the language.  When and if you do become eligbile for detective they will be looking at how well that you write because your written documents will always be used in court.