LA Police Detective = Lieutenant?

[CaptMurdock]

Hill Street Blues, set in an unnamed city, had a fairly codified rank system:

Captain = Frank Furillo. Under him:

Lieutenants Calletano (Furillo’s nominal second in command), Hunter (leader of the Emergency Action Team a.ka. SWAT) and Goldblum. These guys were largely administrative in function, although Hunter did go out with the EATs, and Calletano and Goldblum occasionally went on undercover assignments.

When Calletano was promoted to captain and sent off to another precinct, they brought in another lieutenant, Buntz. While he did occasionally administrative stuff (e.g. vetting new front-desk khaki officers) he went out into the field a lot more than the other LTs.

Sergeants = Esterhaus, the first turn-out sgt (“Let’s be careful out there!”) was the head of the squad room. When he died, Bates, recently promoted to the rank of sergeant, stepped in from motor patrol duty to take the position. She decided to go back to motor patrol, necessitating bringing in Sgt. Jablonski (“Let’s do it to them before they do it to us!”)

Mick Belker was a detective sergeant. He had no administrative duties, as far as we could see, and spent all his time undercover.

Detectives = LaRue, Washington; also Mayo, Garibaldi, possibly others. Plainclothes officers of various ranks. LaRue was probably senior as far as time on the force, but not in rank.

Patrolmen = Hill, Renko, Coffey, others.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Acsenray

You mean like how on Star Trek, eventually all the main characters became captains while keeping the same jobs? Captain Kirk, Captain Spock, Captain Scott, Captain Sulu …

*Star Trek *certainly played it fast and loose with rank. TNG also had commanding officers of much smaller Starfleet ships than the Enterprise also wearing the four collar pips of a captain, just as Picard had. It’s not like the U.S. Navy in that respect… although I did read not long ago of a Navy supercarrier with a captain (O-6) as commanding officer, and another captain as chief engineer. You have to remember the distinction between captain (rank) and captain (billet).

[MikeF]

Supervisors supervise, as Loach said, but sometimes they also catch cases. When I was a supervisor in narcotics I was out on the street but was never the case investigator. When I went to homicide I supervised but was also in the rotation, plus I picked up “special cases” - officer-involved shootings being the main type.

[Ranger_Jeff]

In Philadelphia, one starts as an Officer. After a minimum of 2 years of service, an Officer can take the exam for Corporal or Detective. Corporals and Detectives take the same exam for Sergeant. A former Detective may have to go back into uniform with his Sergeantcy. After Sergeant comes Lieutenant, then Captain, Staff Inspector, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Deputy Commissioner, and then Commissioner.

[bump]

@doreen

And that part is realistic in my experience - many government entities ( including police departments) have two entry points for professional staff. You can enter at the lowest professional rank ( police officer, , sanitation worker, caseworker ) - or you can come in at some higher, management-level rank. But you can’t enter at the in-between ranks as a sergeant or lieutenant or sanitation supervisor no matter how much experience you may have in another jurisdiction.

I don’t know about that; there are plenty of examples of professional people making lateral moves into public service jobs without having to start at the bottom or be management either. Maybe it has to do with whether you’re in a specialized profession or not- I know for a fact that cities and states don’t populate their IT departments by making everyone start out in the help desk.

[doreen]

@bump

I don’t know about that; there are plenty of examples of professional people making lateral moves into public service jobs without having to start at the bottom or be management either. Maybe it has to do with whether you’re in a specialized profession or not- I know for a fact that cities and states don’t populate their IT departments by making everyone start out in the help desk.

That’s why I said many rather than all. But I also said enter at the “lowest professional rank” - in my experience (which is of course limited), the people staffing the help desk are considered support staff and that therefore would not be the “lowest professional rank”.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@jnglmassiv

so a detective sergeant that passes the lietenant exam may need to move back to patrol to fill a vacancy in order to accept the promotion.

I suppose personal tastes vary here, but does this happen very often? I mean, a detective sergeant opting to go back to patrol. How does that usually work out in terms of performance and job satisfaction?

[Loach]

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

I suppose personal tastes vary here, but does this happen very often? I mean, a detective sergeant opting to go back to patrol. How does that usually work out in terms of performance and job satisfaction?

If they don’t like it don’t take the test. Plenty of officers and detectives don’t want to be supervisors and stay where they are.

I can’t speak for all departments. I know mine. I know my department follows the basic structure of the departments around me. I have a passing knowledge of the NYPD structure.

As I said before, supervisors supervise. In general terms a supervisor should be able to be put in any supervisor slot of their rank and handle the duties. Lieutenants in charges of detectives don’t detect. They allocate resources. They delegate. They schedule. All the things bosses do on patrol or in the bureau. A patrol lieutenant isn’t taking reports and going on calls either. They are supervising the shift. As I said in a previous post the NYPD also has the special designations of SDS and CDS but those are a small percentage of lieutenants and sergeants and mostly in specialized units. That’s more of an outlier than usual practice.

It’s a comedy but Brooklyn 99 showed this. Amy got promoted to sergeant and put on a uniform. In the NYPD there would be a decent chance she would have to take her promotion in a different precinct but that wouldn’t be good for the show.

For departments that don’t have 35,000 officers supervisors go to whatever slots are open. And most want to move around. A well rounded career looks good when you are going for a higher promotion.

[Loach]

@MikeF

Supervisors supervise, as Loach said, but sometimes they also catch cases. When I was a supervisor in narcotics I was out on the street but was never the case investigator. When I went to homicide I supervised but was also in the rotation, plus I picked up “special cases” - officer-involved shootings being the main type.

The smaller the department the more grunt work a supervisor has to do. I know of some 3 man departments, Chief, Sergeant, and Officer. It’s basically no grunt work in my department. The Vice sergeant is out with his guys but they are the ones doing the reports and getting warrants etc. Patrol sergeants can be on the road and respond to the calls they need to go to but they aren’t doing any of the paperwork. Lieutenants do none of that except IA investigations.

[nightshadea]

in joe waumbaughs lapd books he said the lieutenant and captains are like an exec producer on a show the captain handles all the stuff from the higher ups and sets policy ect

the lieutenant is the one that handles the actual day to day running of the precinct like assignments aka the “showrunner” the sergeants mainly supervise the patrols and booking such