How to become a detective

Can you become a detective without being in the police force first

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Can you become a detective without being in the police force first

If you mean can you become a police detective without having first been a uniformed police constable, the answer is yes, although depending on the force, you may have to be in a uniformed role for a few months after you have left the training school.

If you mean can you become a detective for the police without ever being a police constable, the answer is possibly, but it could be quite long winded. Most police forces have police staff investigators - people who are not police constables but work for the force as investigators as civilians. They do essentially the same role as detectives except they don't have arrest powers. However, the vast majority of these are former police officers who have either retired or for whatever reason left the direct policing role. I'm not aware of any force that trains civilian investigators from scratch (although some might), but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to get the training with another agency like the the Serious Fraud Office or possibly Border Force and then transfer with the qualification - I'm just not sure what the benefits would be.

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