Example Career: Detectives and Criminal Investigators

Career Description

Conduct investigations related to suspected violations of federal, state, or local laws to prevent or solve crimes.

What Job Titles Detectives and Criminal Investigators Might Have

• Criminal Investigator
• Detective
• Investigator
• Special Agent

What Detectives and Criminal Investigators Do

• Check victims for signs of life, such as breathing and pulse.
• Obtain facts or statements from complainants, witnesses, and accused persons and record interviews, using recording device.
• Secure deceased body and obtain evidence from it, preventing bystanders from tampering with it prior to medical examiner's arrival.
• Record progress of investigation, maintain informational files on suspects, and submit reports to commanding officer or magistrate to authorize warrants.
• Prepare reports that detail investigation findings.
• Prepare charges or responses to charges, or information for court cases, according to formalized procedures.
• Preserve, process, and analyze items of evidence obtained from crime scenes and suspects, placing them in proper containers and destroying evidence no longer needed.
• Obtain summary of incident from officer in charge at crime scene, taking care to avoid disturbing evidence.
• Note, mark, and photograph location of objects found, such as footprints, tire tracks, bullets and bloodstains, and take measurements of the scene.
• Examine records and governmental agency files to find identifying data about suspects.
• Secure persons at scene, keeping witnesses from conversing or leaving the scene before investigators arrive.
• Provide information to lab personnel concerning the source of an item of evidence and tests to be performed.
• Analyze completed police reports to determine what additional information and investigative work is needed.
• Examine records to locate links in chains of evidence or information.
• Search for and collect evidence, such as fingerprints, using investigative equipment.
• Prepare and serve search and arrest warrants.
• Question individuals or observe persons and establishments to confirm information given to patrol officers.
• Determine scope, timing, and direction of investigations.
• Obtain and verify evidence by interviewing and observing suspects and witnesses or by analyzing records.
• Participate or assist in raids and arrests.
• Organize scene search, assigning specific tasks and areas of search to individual officers and obtaining adequate lighting as necessary.
• Summon medical help for injured individuals and alert medical personnel to take statements from them.
• Notify command of situation and request assistance.
• Block or rope off scene and check perimeter to ensure that entire scene is secured.
• Identify case issues and evidence needed, based on analysis of charges, complaints, or allegations of law violations.
• Notify, or request notification of, medical examiner or district attorney representative.
• Collaborate with other offices and agencies to exchange information and coordinate activities.
• Maintain surveillance of establishments to obtain identifying information on suspects.
• Testify before grand juries concerning criminal activity investigations.
• Perform undercover assignments and maintain surveillance, including monitoring authorized wiretaps.

What Detectives and Criminal Investigators Should Be Good At

• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
• Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).

What Detectives and Criminal Investigators Should Be Interested In

• Investigative - Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

What Detectives and Criminal Investigators Need to Learn

• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Telecommunications - Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
• Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.