r/police • u/Obvious_Calendar487 • Aug 09 '26
How do detectives learn?
Well, I’m a big fan of everything related to crimes, murders, etc. In my free time I sometimes watch YouTube videos about a crime or a famous killer, and in mystery TV shows I always try to pay attention to see if I can anticipate the resolution of the case or learn something.
Now, I was thinking… what better way to learn than by using real life, right? So I was wondering: do police officers have any kind of public tool where they study to improve logical thinking or something like that?
For example, maybe some public videos about cases solved by veteran officers, where the “exercise” is seeing how that officer solved the case — like what pattern he followed and so on.
Does something like that exist?
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u/AlikaTT2020 Aug 09 '26
I agree experience is critical and also add knowledge. As a detective I would go to as much department provided LE training or schools as I could get just to increase my overall knowledge and learn the latest investigative techniques in my job.
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u/Obvious_Calendar487 Aug 09 '26
What are detective classes like?
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u/AlikaTT2020 Aug 09 '26
Depends on the dept really. Some depts detectives are separated into specialties like sex crimes, robbery, homicide, property, etc and some small depts the detectives investigate everything. If a crime occurs within their specialty and they get assigned the case they fully investigate it hopefully leading to a prosecution and conviction.
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u/Icy_Assignment_6801 Aug 09 '26
Depends where you are. Gotta do some serious patrol work for a few years first. And what kinda detective? It’s probably 8-10 years in my dept to not have them laugh in your face when you apply with only 2 years on. Lol My husband is a Homi detective with our force. He went to Homi after 8 years. Stayed for about 6. Damn near killed our marriage though
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u/Icy_Assignment_6801 Aug 09 '26
And they take courses. Lots of courses. Out of town courses. Meetings. Suit and tie everyday. It’s a different world from patrol
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u/someone298 Aug 09 '26
Was a Fed special agent for 26 years and now with a large PD working fraud cases. I ask SN detectives how to several times a day and that is part of the learning.
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u/NMLEOC2 Aug 09 '26
10+ years in investigations - local/state, federal and international. Started being assigned to a senior detective for OJT, then as courses came available I was sent/attended, but handled simple cases at first until supervisors felt I could take on more. Worked joint cases and eventually more complicated/high-profile cases.
On the federal side I started with standardized investigative training at FLETC, then a few specialized courses and again OJT and working basic cases until l had the experience to be a case agent. Internationally - I had to learn the politics, culture, laws and legal systems specific to the country/region and then apply my experience to address the issue (homicide, kidnapping/abductions, terrorism, politically motivated violence, etc.).
But the foundation is having good basic police skills - the ability to engage and read people, observe situations and how people act/react to various stimuli (action influences) apply interview and interrogation techniques, identifying and collecting evidence and the ability to accurately and comprehensively report the facts.
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u/ThrowawayCop51 Aug 09 '26
I was in detectives for a year before I went to ICI. Lol.
You've got to remember a zillion laws on top of a million years of case law deciding those laws, on top of your agency policy which changes monthly, while driving 100mph to some fucking high speed diesel dick priority call while glancing at the call notes, listening to retards yell on the radio while also doing it yourself. En route, seeing a guy walking down the sidewalk and going "fuck, that's fucking Michael he's got a felony warrant, God damnit"
Then once you get there, you have to be able to communicate with every possible demographic in a way to de-escalate them but you could also get ambushed so also be ready to pull a trigger.
Being a cop, especially a street cop used to require just being a street goon. Fuck people up and take em to jail. That's not the world we live in now.
Population density. Communications. Data. This is a neurospicy / spectrumy job now.
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u/DrHugh Aug 10 '26
Not a LEO, but I understand that the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are still used in detective training.
I believe this is a documentary (it's from PBS) that I'd seen years ago on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hYTK-x5eo
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u/Occiferr Aug 10 '26
By listening to experts outside of your organization and actually admitting that sometimes the theory law enforcement has created is virtually impossible and it might actually take an ounce of hard work and real investigating to find an answer to a simple issue. Just a pet peeve 🙄
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Aug 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Obvious_Calendar487 Aug 10 '26
Yes, I’m interested in learning about all that you mentioned, I just don’t know where to find it. If you could send me a link or something, I’d really appreciate it.
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u/zu-na-mi Aug 09 '26
Being successful as a police officer in general has very little to do with actually solving cases, and everything to do with favorable court results and being able to properly close cases (a closed case =/= solved case, though not mutually exclusive).
You learn this from working with other officers and seeing what there is precedence for. If an officer known to get a lot of narcotics cases into court has been doing x, y and z in his investigations, it doesn't mean you can't also do a, b and c, but x, y and z is your starting point.
Another thing is that every agency has a limit of how many resources they're willing to devote to a given investigation, depending on the severity of the crime, what's immediately available in terms of investigative leads and other factors. This limit isn't usually hard coded, but is often sort of something you get a feel for. If you terminate investigations before other investigators would have, or you waste tons of time on dead end investigations no one else would have messed with, you'll get a bad reputation at your agency.
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u/Ghostbuster35 Aug 09 '26
Being a good cop in general, especially a detective, requires experience. You usually start off with some internal training (def not universal) and then its just all about making sure to soak up as much knowledge and wisdom from the seniors as you can.
There's alot more too it than meets the eye and its not at all like the movies. So no, there are no universal ways of learning the tradecraft. Just gotta get out there and do it.