The police want to make it more attractive for people with a higher vocational or university diploma to work for the police. That is why she created the position of investigative officer. An investigative officer assists the investigation in its work. To become a criminal investigator, someone must first complete a three-year master’s degree program. The admission requirements for this are strict. During the master’s degree, someone also gains experience in police work. The police want to involve more highly educated people in their work. There are several reasons for this. The original police cadre consisted largely of poorly educated people who subsequently made a career for themselves within the police. Sometimes this can lead to problems, for example tunnel vision. This could possibly be prevented if someone with more analytical skills was present. More and more crimes have also become more and more complicated. In recent years, the police have had to deal with increasingly complex cases, such as property crimes and cross-border crimes. There is therefore an increasing demand on the intellectual capabilities of the police. In order to attract more highly educated people to the police, she is actively looking for lateral entrants who want to be trained as detectives.
Duties and responsibilities of a criminal investigator
A detective is a detective who takes on additional roles and activities. It could be someone who works as a project preparer or as an interrogation coordinator. A detective is usually part of an investigation team. Within this context, he or she performs a specific substantive task. A detective will mainly focus on the content and will therefore not be assigned management tasks, for example. It may also happen that a detective works independently on a sub-investigation. A detective will sometimes be present during arrests, but a large part of the work will take place behind the desk. It is important not to be mistaken about this, because otherwise many people will get too rosy a picture of working in the police.
The training of a criminal investigator
A special HBO master’s degree is offered at the Police Academy in Apeldoorn, namely the Master of Criminal Investigation. This is accessible to people who have a HBO bachelor’s degree. Sometimes a general bachelor’s degree is sufficient, in other cases the police are looking for people with special capabilities, for example a bachelor’s degree in digital or financial fields. The first year of the training is a pre-Master’s and in that year people mainly become acquainted with general police work. A large part of the internship takes place in practice. For example, they will do an internship at a police force. The master itself lasts two to three years and partly consists of internships. However, the training requirements are strict. For example, a person must be in good physical condition and must undergo various psychological tests. Ultimately, a significant percentage of people who register drop out before the training starts.
The salary of a detective
From the moment someone starts the training, he or she receives payment. The police salary scale consists of 14 increments. A HBO student starts at the beginning of his education in scale 6. That is an amount of 1,911 euros per month. With normal functioning, a person increases one increment every year. After two years, the candidate is promoted to scale 8. However, a number of conditions must be met. The pre-master phase must have been successfully completed and someone must have at least 6 months of experience in a police force. When someone has successfully completed the training, he or she is promoted to scale 9. The maximum salary that a HBO graduate can then earn is 3,569 euros. There are also attractive other employment conditions, such as a thirteenth month, holiday allowance, a good pension scheme, travel expenses and paid parental leave.