Detectives in a small PD (15 members)

[johnLW]

Hello,

I am trying to put together an outline for our city council to add another sworn position so we can hire a detective. Our city has a population of 2850 and our PD has a Chief and 9 officers. Our goal is to move an existing officer to the detective position.

Does anyone belong to an agency that small that has a detective position and if so, how did you convince your city council to add another position.

Thanks for the assistance!

John

[Bing_Oh]

I'm on a PD of a similar size (bigger population, though...5000+) that just added a detective. Our council would never have gone for hiring an officer to create a detective position, so we got them to agree to create the position and fill his open patrol slot with part time officers (already hired, cheaper to pay, and none of that nasty insurance stuff that is required for full-time employees).

Our detective was already doing alot of detective work anyway, even before his reassignment. He's also our resident drug taskforce member and evidence tech.

[coprock]

My department is of similar size for now. We have just annexed a large amount of land. The only way that we were able to get another detective slot was because we were given four new officers because of the increased patrol area. Three were used for new hires and one officer was taken off the road and made a detective.

[WNC-LE]

Man...

Our sleepy little town of 1000 has a FT Det on the force. (Old Fort, NC)

We define the "Barney Fife" lifestyle LOL j/k

[theheights109]

we have 8 officers, and one of them is a detective, and we maintain 24hr coverage. the detective has been in that position for well over 10 years i think, and i am not sure how he got there. he also takes care of patrol duties if an officer is sick, in training, or if the schedule or special event requires extra coverage. he is now a member of a federal task-force, so it's not like he does nothing. it makes us a little more self-sufficient, and we rely less on outside agencies to handle our investigations. but the point is that it can be done in a small depratment.