detective career path

I’m 15 years old and interested in becoming a detective, but I’m unsure about certain aspects.

Firstly, I don’t want to be a police officer, but I’ve seen people say you have to be one for at least 5 years to work up to the role, but I’ve also seen a detective programme from the company PoliceNow saying you can’t have worked in law enforcement if you want to apply to their detective programme, so I’m unsure about this aspect.

Secondly I was wondering if anyone knows about any work experience related to this field I could do at my age.

All the posts on this sub forum are a bit confusing to me so idk if this one is relevant, but if anyone knows what I’m talking about any help is appreciated.

I’m 15 years old and interested in becoming a detective, but I’m unsure about certain aspects.

Firstly, I don’t want to be a police officer, but I’ve seen people say you have to be one for at least 5 years to work up to the role, but I’ve also seen a detective programme from the company PoliceNow saying you can’t have worked in law enforcement if you want to apply to their detective programme, so I’m unsure about this aspect.

Secondly I was wondering if anyone knows about any work experience related to this field I could do at my age.

All the posts on this sub forum are a bit confusing to me so idk if this one is relevant, but if anyone knows what I’m talking about any help is appreciated.

Hiya

Some of the basics about how it works:

1. Years ago, everyone became a police constable (PC). They started off in uniform and did the walking around or driving around. The essential difference was that PCs usually wore uniform and detectives (DCs) usually wore plain clothes and dealt with more serious or complex crime.

2. To become a DC, you had to be a PC and then take an exam (the National Investigators Exam), move into a role as a Trainee Detective (TDC) where you'd do detective work under supervision and complete a portfolio of work (known in some forces as a "workbook") which when completed, you'd become a substantive DC.

3. DCs were then generally posted to either a CID unit (serious/complex crime) or to a Safeguarding unit (sexual offences / domestic violence / children etc)

4. Today, there are multiple routes to becoming a DC, but in some way you are always a PC at some point.

- Traditional PC-DC route as above. You join a force as a PC, and in your own time take the exams as above.

- DC DHEP. Most forces will offer DC Degree Holders Entry Programme. You must be a graduate. You join their training school directly, do all the training which is essentially the same as PCs, but after a short "street duties" which lasts a month or two, you are posted directly as a TDC, and you are not usually given any uniform or uniform duties, and you are put in for the NIE as a TDC.

- Police Now Detectives. This is a national programme for graduates. Not all forces take part in it, and the forces that do can change every year. You go to a national training school which is usually residential, and do an accelerated training lasting about 4 months before going to one of the forces in the programme, you take the NIE and are posted as a TDC. The whole thing lasts 2 years at the end of which you are given the option to leave or stay. When they say you can't have worked in Law Enforcement, what they mean is that they want university graduates and not people who are already police officers.

Just be aware that there are pros and cons to all these routes which aren't all that obvious.

It isn't as simple as thinking that PCs wear uniforms and DCs wear suits. There is a lot more crossover than there used to be and nowadays some DCs do proactive roles and drive around in cars doing stop and search or kicking down doors. Some PCs wear plain clothes and investigate crimes. It's quite common to find PCs in CID or Safeguarding doing DC roles.

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

If you go to the website of your local police force you should see something about careers, then you may see something about pathways, Kent Police has a good amount of info on what you want to do:
https://www.kent.police.uk/police-forces/kent-police/areas/kent-police/c/careers/police-officer-roles/
Hope this helps

Do you know if the detective routes are competitive?