What are some drawbacks of being a homicide detective?

1. The long hours. Depending on the agency, caseload, and number of detectives in the Unit, the on-call status is rotated regularly. If you pick up a murder and happen to be the lead, you can expect to work 12–20 hours, sometimes more. read more

Some of those who choose to remain in Homicide often succumb to alcohol, drugs, etc., as a way of dealing with these aspects of the job. All things considered, it's a great job. My five years as the Homicide Bureau major in my former agency were the best of a 32+ year career. read more

Being a detective offers a variety of career specialties from which to choose. For example, police detectives can work in a homicide, fraud or narcotics division, or they may specialize in missing person cases, cold cases or computer crimes. read more

The advantages of being a detective/investigator are that you can learn a lot from the cases you get. For example, you can solve a crime and feel great about it! Being at the scene of the crime you can get to see what really happened and get much experience. read more