As young people, we are interested in future careers. Becoming a detective or an officer in the law enforcement field is one of those wishes. The average detectives does not dress up in Sherlock Holmes attire walking around smoking a pipe while they study a trace of footprints with a magnifying glass held right next to their eye. They actually consume most of their time in front of a computer analyzing their case file. If you are starting to be discouraged at this introduction, don't be. A detective's job has a lot of excitement in store.

Some students are caught up with the concept of being a detective. Freshman Brent Bailey states, “I think being a detective would be cool, you know like spying and arresting people. And you can do whatever needed to arrest the guy without ever having to worry about the law, because you are the law!” Junior Matt Godoy regards the detective job as being “challenging and rewarding. It will be especially challenging to solve the cases and stuff like that.”

Detective Arinsberg agreed to an interview at the detective bureau in the Marina del Rey sheriff’s station. Before the interview, Detective Arinsberg introduced his friends: Deputy Claybion and Deputy Yelick. Deputy Claybion at the sheriff’s station operates the dispatch room where the department sends the squad cars to the designated areas. Deputy Yelick works on the sheriff's harbor patrol boat, which is equipped with twin engines for extra speed and all types of equipment in case they need to perform first aid, tow a boat, extinguish a fire, or dive to collect something.

When the interview began, Detective Arinsberg had a case file involving a robbery, which he took from scratch and worked all the way up to arresting the suspect. When asked if the detectives were separated into categories for different cases, he explained that the first line of detectives at the Marina del Rey bureau do not handle cases that involve child abuse, murder, or forgery and fraud. The detectives at the Marina del Rey bureau are divided up into categories, Detective Arinsberg is in charge robbery, missing persons, elder abuse, and juvenile crimes, while various other detectives handle crimes like auto thefts, burglaries, domestic violence, sexual assaults, court violations, terrorist threats, and other crimes that happen around the Marina.

There are many benefits a detective. For example, the schedule of an average detective is quite flexible. All the detectives have to do is serve the public, be up-to-date on cases, and put in a minimum of forty hours of work a week. It does not matter when they finish their forty hours. They just has to put in that time each week. They can leave and come when they wants. Plus, a detective sees more of the "big picture" in the case and pieces it all together. At night, they may be called on special assignments. The average detective is kept very busy with cases constantly flowing in. On the average, a single detective receives about fifteen to twenty cases a month.

To be a detective, one needs to have a minimum of four years of experience in the field as an officer, or have at least two and a half years as a training officer before applying for the detective job. A training officer needs fewer years as a requirement because they are both in charge of knowing the routine of training young officers, and they are teaching at the same time.

The detective job is not all that boring. About two times a month, a detective will go out on patrol just as any regular officer would do. A detective will be given a warrant to bring someone into custody or to search the suspect's residence. They usually execute this at very odd times in the morning when the owner of the house or the suspect is too drowsy to do anything about it. The income rate is about $75,000 a year, and it appears to be a job full of excitement.

 Back

Current Issue

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

June