Just saw NYPD Blue and a detective was promoted to sergeant. After the promotion he returned to working in the patrol group, wearing a uniform with a job as a supervisor.
Is this realistic? I figured that being a detective was a better job than being in the patrol/uniform group but I guess being a supervisor is better than being a detective who’s not a supervisor?
This topic came up on the board when the story arc about Sipowicz passing the sergeants’ exam first aired around 2004. I can’t find the thread now. As I recall, “detective” is not a rank but a job description. Detectives earn higher pay than patrol officers but don’t technically outrank them. If they’re in charge of an investigation they can seek assistance from patrol officers but they can’t technically issue them orders. Any sergeant outranks any detective (and any patrol officer, of course) and sergeants typically earn more money than a detective. If you hope to be a lieutenant or higher rank, you have to become a sergeant first.
This is going from my memory of a discussion about a fictional TV show from more than a decade ago. I could easily be wrong.
found a link that says a sergeant does outrank all detectives in NYPD
I guess based on TV/movies we get the idea that a detective is a higher rank than they really are.
Inspector’s the tricky one. Depending on what police department you’re talking about, it can be anywhere from down near the bottom of the ranks to almost up at the top.
Well, if it’s not the NYPD, you could certainly be a Detective Sergeant, or even a Detective Inspector who outranks a sergeant, or a high-ranking CID supervisor and still be a detective.
In Britain, inspectors and superintendents outrank constables; but the chief constable outranks chief superintendents and chief inspectors.
It gets even more confusing when they show foreign cop shows, and their titles of rank (e.g., in France, words like lieutenant, brigadier, commandant) don’t necessarily translate directly (and they organise their police forces differently too).
they also mentioned several times a detective who broke a rule or screwed up could be demoted back to working on patrol. That almost happened to Medavoy. In some cases the guy would just quit rather than take the demotion.
I think that it is a given that being a ‘detective’ who investigates crimes and does not (generally) wear a uniform is a more high-status job than being a uniformed constable who does patrols and sorts out problems on the ground.
In the movies Dirty Harry’s job title is inspector and he’s a detective.
My best friend is a Detective for a smallish town, northwest of Atlanta. He started as a patrol officer (which he hated), past the crime scene technician test and moved into that role, and now, has been a regular talk to victims / interview suspects Detective for a few years.
He recently took the Sargeants exam. When asked his response was pay raise, promotion, supervisory role (in that order). However, he’s not happy with maybe having to dress in “blues” again.
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sfpd 
I do find it hilarious that the vast majority of crime dramas centering around police specifically involve police who don’t have to dress like police, and support the implication that “wearing a uniform” is a degrading demotion from a “real” job.
Of course, Hollywood gives us what we want, and we want to see people who are not in uniform.
Slightly off-topic alert. I just watched the Barney Miller episode where Levitt - who constantly complained about not being a detective - was pulled up to the squad room for a day with the detectives. He hated that he was wearing the cop-on-the beat uniform, so he went to a wedding rental place around the corner and rented a cheesy tux to wear for the rest of the day.
mmm
In Britain all police officers are constables in the legal sense that a constable is a person with the powers of a police officer. There are constables who aren’t actually police officers (in the sense that police officers are regular cops under the jurisdiction of the Home Office), but they have the same powers eg a few Cathedrals and Cambridge University have their own constabularies, on-duty prison officers have constable powers etc
(I really hope the preceding paragraph makes sense)
Random points on the subject:
In the US there is no set standard for ranks but most follow at least somewhat a military rank structure. Larger organizations will need more rank levels.
Detective is a job not a rank. In some departments there is a stipend or some sort of pay boost as an incentive. In others there is not. In my department it is a lateral move nothing more. In fact scheduling and circumstances mean there is more of a chance to earn money on patrol. I was a detective for 5 years then rotated back to the road. There are pros and cons to both.
Most departments have officer, sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, and Chief. Larger departments may find the need to add tanks like corporal, major, inspector, deputy chief… it’s not standard it depends on the department. We used to have a deputy chief position but they did away with it decades ago.
Some departments will have some strange practices that have become traditional. In New Jersey most departments are run by a chief with rank insignia patterned off of general’s stars. The largest police force in the state is the New Jersey State Police. Their commandant holds the rank of Colonel and that is their highest rank. Why? Because Norman Schwarzkopf Sr wanted that way when he formed the organization. Because they are so big they also have multiple levels of sergeant like the military as well as the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel.
As noted, Harry Callahan worked for the San Francisco PD. And that’s one of the departments where Inspector is a fairly low rank. In the SFPD, it’s the equivalent of what would be a Detective in many other departments.
In contrast, an Inspector is a very high rank in the NYPD. An Inspector would be somebody in charge of something like an entire borough.
Adam 12 showed officers on patrol in uniform. It ran from 68 to 75. Created by Jack Webb of Dragnet fame.
To give an idea of where inspector falls in the NYPD, their rank insignia for full inspector is an eagle like a colonel in the army. Deputy inspector wears major rank.
So did CHiPs. What happens is that the detective story format is seen as more popular as you can write whole stories and create arcs, as opposed to random encounters as the day goes (that became the province of COPS).
Yep. It may be kind of hard not to smirk at Sherriff McSherrifface of Flyover County, pop. more cows than people, showing up wearing four stars, but that’s just a style decision to signify he is as much the head of the local police in his jurisdiction as the head of NYPD is in his.
In PR, detective or “investigator agent” is a specialization of the person and of the posting where they are assigned at a particular time, rather than intrinsecally a rank. Our police was originally organized as a paramilitary constabulary during the early US takeover of the place so it got military ranks up to colonel rather than “chief” titles. We also like NJ had to expand ranks as the organization grew complex so we have second lieutenants and added Inspectors in the 1990s in between captain and major.