Officially a Detective!

the_Grinch

As of yesterday I have officially become a Detective.  Took my last two tests and have completed the academy.  Tomorrow we graduate, but Wednesday was the big day.  A very long 5 months that I am glad is over, but in a small way I will miss it.  Thanks for all the support it was definitely a big help!

scaredoftests

Congrats!!

DatabaseHead

Great news!   So happy for you!

CyberCop123

the_Grinch said:

As of yesterday I have officially become a Detective.  Took my last two tests and have completed the academy.  Tomorrow we graduate, but Wednesday was the big day.  A very long 5 months that I am glad is over, but in a small way I will miss it.  Thanks for all the support it was definitely a big help!

Congratulations!  

I'm guessing you're US based, it's slightly different in the UK.  I'm a Detective in the UK - welcome to the club! 

PJ_Sneakers

Congrats brother! Now go crank off a desk pop.

the_Grinch

We joked about the desk pop during range week...thankfully one never occurred.

MickyDee

Awesome, congrats!

COBOL_DOS_ERA

Congrats!!

Domm362

Very nice, congratulations!!

PJ_Sneakers

Oh yeah, I forgot to say "OFFICER IT WAS HIM -->" and "I DIDN'T DO IT!!!!" oh and don't forget "YOU BETTER BEHAVE OR I'LL HAVE THIS COP ARREST YOU"

Heh, heh.

UnixGuy

Congrats Detective!!!! 

MitM

Congrats!!!!

devilbones

Congratulations.  

jcundiff

Congratulations!  Now you can work on being able to properly teach cell phone forensics

the_Grinch

jcundiff said:

Congratulations!  Now you can work on being able to properly teach cell phone forensics

Oh heck yeah!  Hoping the academy will allow me to takeover that block!

Ertaz

Congrats!  Well earned.

TechGromit

Congratulations, correct me if I'm wrong, but you were never a patrol officer correct? You were IT support of some form before right?

the_Grinch

TechGromit said:

Congratulations, correct me if I'm wrong, but you were never a patrol officer correct? You were IT support of some form before right?

Yup no patrol background.  I was an Investigator for two years with my agency and an Investigator with another agency for three years.

DatabaseHead

the_Grinch said:

TechGromit said:

Congratulations, correct me if I'm wrong, but you were never a patrol officer correct? You were IT support of some form before right?

Yup no patrol background.  I was an Investigator for two years with my agency and an Investigator with another agency for three years.

That's really neat!  

rj1790

That's awesome!!! Congrats! 

electroniclion

How did you get into that type of work in the beginning? Sounds pretty cool

congrats !!

the_Grinch

electroniclion said:

How did you get into that type of work in the beginning? Sounds pretty cool

congrats !!

Thanks!  I went from the private sector to a State agency doing cybersecurity investigations and audits (regulatory in nature).  From there I assisted with a criminal investigation involving another agency and eventually they posted for an investigator.  Got hired there, did just about two years as an investigator and then applied to become a Detective.  Took about 5 years on that path

TheFORCE

@the_Grinch congratulations man! Well done!

shimasensei

Congratulations detective...it sounds like a fun job!

ps.89

the_Grinch said:

electroniclion said:

How did you get into that type of work in the beginning? Sounds pretty cool

congrats !!

Thanks!  I went from the private sector to a State agency doing cybersecurity investigations and audits (regulatory in nature).  From there I assisted with a criminal investigation involving another agency and eventually they posted for an investigator.  Got hired there, did just about two years as an investigator and then applied to become a Detective.  Took about 5 years on that path

Congratulations on becoming Detective!

Could you provide some information in regards to doing cybersecurity investigations for the State? I always assumed that for the State, the titles were very generic, meaning the title "Investigator" for one State department could be completely different for another department.

the_Grinch

So in the my department (and some other State departments) we have investigators and we have Detectives.  Investigators are sworn, but do not carry a firearm and have no powers of arrest.  Typically they will be extremely specialized so they will never be moved from the unit they are assigned to.  They basically will do just about all the same work as a Detective.

Detectives in turn have completed the police academy, carry firearms and can make arrests.  My agency will hire off the street with just a degree to become a Detective, but typically you were law enforcement somewhere else or you have a skill they cannot get otherwise.  Detectives will typically move to various units because the investigative process is the same regardless of the unit.  

As far as cybersecurity investigations it really depends on the agency.  In my last agency, we dealt solely in regulation and with that came cybersecurity issues (fraud, breaches, security assessments, etc).  We had a number of tools at our disposal in order to see if an event had occurred and then investigate it.  From there we could decide that no action was required, regulatory action was required or criminal action was required.  For the criminal side we would assist the agency that we passed the case to.

For my current agency it's just about the same though the cases will typically be child **** related, though others do come in.  What I can say is that we do some pretty technical stuff that many departments could never do (due largely to our personnel and budget).  Law enforcement, at least at a state and local (for the most part) are vastly behind when it comes to technical investigations.  As it was told to me when I was in college and as I have told people ever since, you can make an IT guy into a police officer....you almost can never make a police officer into an IT guy.

As we all know, you have to live and breathe security in order to do it properly.  Some people want to come in, work and go home.  Nothing wrong with that, but in this profession you need to be working just about 24/7.  I'm on call 24/7/365 and I field calls from agencies all over my state.  The guys in my unit joked that the call volume went down dramatically while I was in the academy for 5 months.  Everyday is different and somedays I start at one end of the state and end up on the other end.  Morning might be a drug case, homicide after lunch and then some sort of fraud before the day ends.