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How is the opportunities for advancement in the criminal investigations department?

What does the career path in criminal justice look like? What can i expect?

criminal-justice criminal criminal-law criminal-investigation
Thank you comment icon There are a few avenues a criminal justice degree will take you, you could get into law enforcement and gain experience that way or you can work for private investigators and gain experience that way. When I started I got an internship with the public defenders office, from there I went into the private sector where I did contract investigations with the public defenders office before starting my own company. I currently do criminal defense investigations and contracted with the state. Joseph DESCAFANO
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Herbert’s Answer

It varies from agency to agency.

Larger departments have more potential for advancement in a quicker pace than a small department where there are less positions open to promote into.

Think about how you want to start your career. Do you want to start in an agency where you are on the street (patrol) or investigations where you are spending time in the office a lot more than on the street?

Also some agencies require a college degree just to get into the front door.

I was an intern in college at Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud. The investigators were dealing with a lot of paper, doctors files , invoices. Hitting the street or doing anything outside of the office was not as frequent as working as a detective for a police department. I was told to try a local agency (Police/Sheriff) before going into that type of investigation. A lot of investigators in that agency were in their 50's which worked for them since they were not as likely to be hopping fences after a suspect.

I went with a large department and gained a ton of experience before getting into detectives.

You can probably talk with your local sheriff department or Portland PD. Those are the 2 large agencies I see in your area.
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