# Police Detective w/out Beat Cop First?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-detective-w-out-beat-cop-first/223267>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 7, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-detective-w-out-beat-cop-first/223267 "2004-01-07T19:32:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-detective-w-out-beat-cop-first/223267/1 "2004-01-07T19:32:12Z")

</div>

Can you be a police detective without first being a beat cop?

If the question makes no sense for any reason, comments on that matter will also be appreciated.

-FrL-

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DreamWorks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DreamWorks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreamWorks)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-detective-w-out-beat-cop-first/223267/2 "2004-01-07T19:50:19Z")

</div>

Most departments will not allow you to become a detective without first being a police officer in some capacity. Avoid use of the word “beat cop” as it no longer applies generally.  
Some D.A.'s offices will hire Investigators, but this is not quite a police detective. Hope this helps…