INTRODUCTION
As a Year 10 student it’s really important to start taking deliberate steps towards success in your future career. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to investigate what I need to do to become a successful detective. I have found out that there is more to becoming a detective than expected. Yes, doing well in my classes at school is very important, but there is knowledge for me waiting to be discovered. There are skills that I need to develop until the time that I am an officer so that I become a successful detective.
POLICE OFFICER JOB DUTIES
In order to become a detective, you must first become a police officer. In more detail, you must be a front-line police officer, meaning that you must do the necessary but unwanted chores. Like every job, the newly hired employee is the one: Cleaning up after everyone, washing the dishes, taking out the rubbish, doing unwanted jobs. Sames thing roles with the police department. One main duty of a front line police officer is partroling different areas, can be on foot or in a car. An example of this is an officer in a car, looking for those that are driving over the speed limit. Another duty that front line officers perform is preventing crimes and accidents. A common way of officers doing this is stopping cars, and testing them to see if they have had any alcohol lately. The final duty that I will be talking about is help search for (suspected) criminals. When detectives issue a search warrant, they need help doing so, so they ask the front liners for help. While the detectives are doing the important work, the frontline officers are patrolling the area and doing the unwanted chores
POLICE TRAINING
To become a police officer, you need to enter police training. Firstly the requirements: you must be 18 years old, hold a full drivers license, pass a fitness test, be a New Zealand or Australian citizen, pass phycological, maths and problem solving test, pass eyesight test, attend an interview, notify police if you have any conviction. Police training is a 16 week long training academy. In police training you learn how to: do first aid, defence tac-tics, firearms, vehicle operations, leadership, Handling emotional situations, and the list goes on.
DETECTIVE JOB DESCRIPTION
When you get promoted to a detective, like other jobs there are a lot more responsibilities. Part of being a detective involves investigating criminal acts. Things like homisides, sexual assault, armed robberies and a lot more criminal activity. They solve cases by collecting physical evidence left at the scene of the crime. They use that evidence to lead them to suspects/ to interview, dates and times all that detail plays an important role in solving a case. But being a detective isn’t always out of the workplace, piecing together a puzzle. A lot of the time you are sitting down at your desk doing paperwork, computer work, writing reports about your previous cases. But instead of giving speeding tickets out like a front line officer, you get to arrest the real bad guys, what an awesome feeling would that be.
OPTIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
To be a detective or any rank higher, you do not need any qualifications. But if you want to increase your chances at becoming a detective, here is what you might want to look at. Attend or Graduate from law enforcement school. A law enforcement or police academy can train new recruits for a specific city or state. The academy covers many areas such as laws, how to make arrests, physical conditioning, tactics, and first aid. A step further would be to obtain a bachelor's degree in law enforcement, but that is used for more advanced law enforcement such as the FBI . If you are looking to become a detective in your older years, having experience in the military will increase your chances hugely. Familiarity with firearms, mental toughness, physical conditioning, discipline, and understanding of command structure and culture will make you highly recommended.
SALARY
As in any job the more responsibilities you have, the higher you get paid. Not only responsibility, but how much older you are, how long you have committed to the job, you even get paid more if you have a degree in law enforcement. But the main way to earn more is to get a promotion. So getting promoted from a constable to a detective you get a huge salary increase from $64,862 to $81,041.
EXPERT ADVICE
One of my experts that I interviewed gave me really good advice about being an officer. Her name is detective Rebekka Still. Firstly, don’t go into being an officer as soon as you leave collage, if an 18 year old is giving advice to a 50 year old on how to live there life, you probably won’t be listened to, and won’t be as respected as a 30 year old. Secondly, being a front line officer is pretty laid back compared to what you have to do when you are a detective, so have fun being a rookie while it lasts. Lastly, when an opportunity comes, stick your hand up and take in, “Thats how I got into the CIB (Criminal Investigation Branch)”. If you decide not to take the opportunity because you’re not ready, that opportunity may not come around within another 3 or 4 years.
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO IN YEAR 10 TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE CAREER OF ‘POLICE DETECTIVE’?
QUALIFICATIONS
Stay with the inquiry year 10 class and be class captain. The inquiry class would be much better for me if I want to become a detective because it covers a lot of the skills that a detective would need if I want to be successful. Such as researching a specific topic for a long period of time. Being a class captain develops leadership skills, others look up to you and ask you for advice. Also a leader doesn’t always lead from the front. Leaders need to learn how to lead from behind and alongside.
QUALITIES
Having a dream to become a detective will require commitment. There is a 75% chance of becoming a police officer and the chance of getting you your application picked is even lower. When I had my interview with detective Rebekka she told me the whole process to becoming a detective. You have to graduate from law enforcement school (takes 4 years), graduate in detective school (takes 4-6 years) then passing a four hour exam.
COMPETENCIES
Have you ever heard the saying, ‘Communication is key’? Well according to Detective Rebekka Still communication is one of the most important parts of being a police officer or detective. You need to be able to talk to everyone in order to be good at your job. Being able to talk to a rich, wealthy business man to a street criminal who has been stealing their whole life can help you with your job and solve a case. I’m going to develop this quality by working with a partner for one of my inquiries.
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO IN SENIOR SCHOOL TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE CAREER OF ‘POLICE DETECTIVE’?
QUALIFICATIONS
Once I reach senior school I want to get my education to the highest level possible. Education is what will help me pass police exams, solve problems and help me with other issues outside of my job. When I am in year 11 I want to get a merit for NCEA level 1 at least. When I reach year 12 I want to attempt to get excellence for NCEA level 2, and maybe I could reach NCEA level 3. By year 13, my final year at college, I want to get a merit for NCEA level 3 at least. I think I am capable of doing these goals I have set for myself, and when I achieve them it will help me with my future.
QUALITIES
When I become a detective I don’t want to stop my police career there. There are a lot more promotions you can get such as being a detective sergeant. A detective sergeant is a detective taking on the role of a sergeant, and investigates major crimes. A sergeant is a supervisor who plans, assigns, reviews, and evaluates the work of others. If I decide to become a detective sergeant in the future, I am going to need some leadership experience. When I am year 13 I want to become a prefect, and maybe even the head boy. Another option is to be the captain of the senior A volleyball team (if I make the team).
COMPETENCIES
Understanding how that human mind works can be quite key when being a detective. I am going to be taking up psychology, so I can understand why criminals are doing what they are doing. A lot of the time they steal because they are poor and don’t have money. But there are a lot of other reasons that make people steal. A good example is jealousy, another example is peer pressure. Not only will this help me with my future career pathway, it also sounds very interesting
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO IN TERTIARY TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE CAREER OF ‘POLICE DETECTIVE’?
QUALIFICATIONS
As mentioned before, a bachelor's degree can increase the chances of becoming a detective. Sometimes you actually get paid more if you have a bachelor's degree in law enforcement. What I am planning on doing is taking detective Rebekka’s advice and don’t go into policing as soon as I get out of college. Instead, at that time I am going to study for a bachelor's degree in law enforcement. And until I am 30 or 35 I will enroll to join the police. Because I have a bachelor's degree in law enforcement, it will make me become a detective much faster, and additionally I will get paid more.
QUALITIES
Sometimes a sergeant or a senior sergeant will assign you a partner. So you need to be able to work with different people. Communication and collaboration is important in this quality because you are solving a case together. I am practicing this at the moment by attending youth wednesday nights. Working with people outside of the classroom, and even outside of school can help me with working with other people when I become a future detective.
COMPETENCIES
Being a detective you are given a lot of paper and computer work. So time management is a crucial skill that I need to develop. At the moment I am developing my time management skills by having a schedule telling me when I can do 90 minutes of math homework. In the workplace I need to first set a list of priorities, what do I need to get done first. Secondly, set a timer for when I can have brain breaks, grab a snack, go to the toilet, or go outside and run around for a bit. Lastly, set a time limit to complete tasks, this will get me to focus and eliminate non essential tasks that will distract me.
CONCLUSION
There are many many steps to becoming a successful detective. There are also a lot of qualifications that I need to achieve and qualities and competencies that I need to develop.
Firstly, the qualifications: Stay in the year 10 inquiry class, because the report writing skills and researching skills will help me a ton in the future. Get my education up as high as possible, not only will it help me with my job, it will also help me in my everyday life. Get a bachelor's degree in law enforcement, it can help me become a detective faster, I get paid more, if I am good with my job I can become a federal detective.
Secondly qualities: Commitment, being a police officer let alone a detective takes a really long time, so commitment and patients is key. Being able to work with a partner, being able to work with anyone for that matter will get you far in life with not many problems. Leadership, once I achieve my detective goal I want to go up the ranks and become a detective sergeant and maybe even higher.
Lastly Competencies: Communication is a very important part in becoming a detective, you need to be able to talk to everyone is the right way to gain information. Understanding how the human mind works, so I know why the criminal commited the crime and how I can approach them with my case. Time management, so I don’t fall behind on work, and have plenty of time for my family.
I think this is a lot of work to become a detective, but talking to my expert about it, she said the same thing, and she said it was worth it.
Bibliography
Careers Inquiry Introduction Document - Last updated 12 August 2020
Careers.govt.nz - Police Officer
Detective Rebekka - Highlighted yellow - Friday February 26th 2021
https://theacademy.ca.gov/basic_police_academy -
Local job network
Detective Rebekka - highlighted green - Friday February 26th 2021
Learn how to become… a detective - 9/11/2020 -
https://www.payscale.com/research/NZ/Job=Constable/Salary - Updated: Thu Dec 10 2020 - Based on 22 salary profiles
https://www.payscale.com/research/NZ/Job=Detective_or_Criminal_Investigator/Salary -
Updated: Fri Jan 01 2021 - Based on 17 salary profiles