detective v.s cop?

Question

what's the difference between a detective vs a cop

Answer 1

A Police Officer is a preliminary investigator. A detective, is the follow up investigator.

Answer 2

Everyone here is correct to an extent. The real difference between a Detective and a uniformed officer, or tactical officer who dresses in street clothes is this:

Detectives have special legal training / certification to do further, completely detailed investigation to include deciding if the incident was really a crime at all, and if there was a crime, does it rise to a felony? The Detectives are usually the only ones who have authorization to formally charge a suspect with a felony.

You can committ a felony in plain view of a uniformed officer, and yet, only a Detective can make the formal charge. Police departments are organized by section, usually. These sections are the patrol division, community policing division, resources division, investigation / detective division, etc.

The Detectives will always have to call teh state's atty's office to have one of their prosecutors come to the police station, interview the victim, the detective(s), and anyone else who saw what happened or those with truly pertinent information that can be substantiated.

Detectives are under 100 times more pressure than street cops because they are responsible for making sure that the rights of all parties are kept intact during the investigation. That means they have to look out for the victim, the suspect, themselves, etc.

They have to follow VERY strict guidelines, laws, department / state policies, federal laws, and cannot allow any personal weakness, political view, emotion, etc. to get involved. This is very hard in the most sensitive cases where the victim is either very young, an easy target, or the details are horribly sick, and their only temptation is to deal with it in their own hands.

These ladies and men are very special folks, and only understood by their own.

There is also a pay difference. The pay is often much better, the hours can be more of a normal schedule, but they are also more demanded and always on call in their off hours.

Detectives have to meet very strict requirements for documenting everything properly, and doing it quickly because time is almost never on their side. Once they have someone in custody for questioning, they can only hold a person for so long before they have to cut 'em loose.

Answer 3

A cop is a general term used for all who are within law enforcement. This includes a patrol officer to a detective or also called an investigator all the way up the ladder to the administration.

Answer 4

Well, a "cop" as you describe, is assigned to basic functions such as patrol with a primary objective of detering crime, providing public services assistance, enforce laws and often are the first line responders so to speak. They would normally respond to a crime scene, secure it, gather the intial intel and interview witnesses and such and possibly secure certain, obvious items of evidence. Detectives are "cops" who have specialized training in gathering informaiton and evaluating evidence for the purpose of answering certain qeustions with regards to how those questions relate to directly solving a crime. Detective are tasked with the actualy investigations, which is, by definition, gathering informaiton and evidence for the purpose of determning the truth.

Answer 5

Detective completes his investigation with an aim to solve it, Police takes it up with an aim to capture detail and follow up to enforce law.

In a more layman terms, detective is a puzzle solver, and police is puzzle provider, though that happens to enforce law and order.

Police is into vigilance unlike detectives, who often execute the process being undercover.

Answer 6

All detectives are cops. Detective is a job title. they are investigators. Uniformed cops are street cops, traffic cops, accident investigators, etc. They do the nasty, gritty, meaty police work.

Answer 7

Patrol officers handle crashes, traffic tickets, DUIs, non-crime requests to see police, and are usually the first ones to major crimes. To keep patrol officers free to handle the above, incidents that require lengthy investigation are usually turned over to detectives (robberies, homicides, deaths investigations, missing persons, rapes, etc.)

Answer 8

Who has a greater exciting job? Is that your question? palms down a highway cop. Blindsided daily may be an common call grew to become "exciting abode" authentic in front of you. No predictability, no ordinary. My opinion.

Answer 9

they are the same thing. they just have different jobs.
----retired texas deputy sheriff----