Thread: A Detective's Job

I know there are several types of detectives, the most common one being Homicide or Special Victims, but what other kinds of detectives are there?

I ask because in my short story, Ray, who is in his late forties and is a detecdtive working in Phoenix, has just been personally asked to investigate a rash of incidents surrounding the recently deceased patients of St. Peregrine's Hospital. To avoid the obvious question (which he himself asked)-"He's just a regular, joe-blow of a detective. Why would the hospital ask him to do that?"-I alluded to the fact that the evidence could be damning, and that the hospital has an old, highly reputable appearance it must maintain, especially since the Church still owns it. So they wouldn't want word getting out that the dead are being messed with.

Now, Ray knows that even still, the case could be above and beyond his duties, and is going to contact and discuss it with his superior because, even though he basically pays his ex-wife for sex (long back story there), he does try to do right when it comes to his job.

Because I don't know the different functions or titles of detectives, I just kind of said that Ray is used to small time cases like drug busts and Coyote drop houses (although that may be more for ICE or the FBI?), to give some examples. Would he be considered a beat cop/detective? Would he look into things like domestic violence, car jacking, etc., if he just a small time cop?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I really hate to "bump" this thread, but any help really would be nice.

Frankly, normaly plot threads in any book/movie involving PI's wouldn't have the hospital directly hiring him. Usually it would have a family member of a patient who had recently died at the hospital who would approach him and ask him to investigate the hospital because, say, the police turned up nothing in their investigation.

In terms of the different kinds of detectives? Basically you just get your PI license. PI's will then specialize in missing persons, or will be hired on as police consultants, or will be the sort of... I don't know the technical term but the kind that follows people and takes compromising photos etc.

I'm not an expert on this sort of thing.. .I'm trying to write my own detective story though too, my guy does missing persons/police consulting, because that's what he did when he was on the force, before he went private.

Ah, you make a good point. It does seem more plausible that a family member would hire a PI and not the hospital directly. I hadn't thought about that angle, to be honest. I've just been going with the flow in my writing and the original idea was what had come to me. Luckily this is the first draft so things can be changed.

Thanks for the insight on private investigators you had. It will give me a starting point to do a little more research. And thank you for responding!

Are you talking about a private detective, or a detective thats part of the police force? As I understand it, a detective in the police force is a general term for what a police officer does- investigate crime. A traffic cop or SWAT officer would not be a detective. The roles inside each department would then be decided by rank. For example, two detectives that are partners in the homicide division are Lt. Smith and Srgt. Adams. Their boss, also a detective, could be Cpt. Jones.

Off the top of my head, a list of divisions where detectives would be used:

Homicide
Bulglary/Robbery
Auto theft
Special Victims
financial crimes
insurance fraud
computer/wire fraud
Narcotics
Internal Affairs
Gangs

Likely some of these will not exist in a small town. You may just have 2 or 3 detectives that cover everthing. But in a city like NY or LA, they would have specialized detectives