Working Your Way Out Of Patrol (If You Want)

Your Time In Patrol Is Critical

For newer officers it’s where you learn the basics. It’s also where you develop your skills that will carry you throughout your career.

You can’t be a good investigator if you aren’t a good street cop. And for that reason, it’s important that you do your time on the road…and make the most of it.

Patrol is actually a great assignment. You make a tremendous impact on citizens’ lives and in the lives of the people you work with. Don’t ever forget that.

When Officers Stall Out

But some people have a bigger calling, or something they want to specialize in as part of their career path. Some people want to go to narcotics, computer crimes, SWAT, or K9.

But sometimes patrol officers stall out. While they want to get into a specialized assignment, they just get used to showing up for the road every day. Or maybe they’re intimidated to put themselves out there as wanting something different. They think that there are other people that are more qualified than them.

Yet other just learn to just get by.  Doing the minimum because it’s easy. That’s why there are patrol officers that have been on for five years, but they seemed to have only one year of experience five times.

What Real Progress Looks Like

But there is a way of getting five years’ worth of experience in just a few years.

The idea is that you deliberately focus on getting better—especially in those areas that are universal to investigative and special unit assignments. And when you intentionally work on getting better, you actually develop multiple skills at the same time.

You develop the skills needed for the job (case management, interviews, articulation) but you also develop the skill of developing skills.

And that will be something that can make you top notch your career and in life.

What Specialized Units Look For

Oftentimes, if you were to look at the makeup of specialized assignments, you see experienced officers that are problem solvers and go-getters. These people have a track record of solid police work and figuring out a way of getting things done and within the constitution.

Being good at what you do is where the bar is actually at, not just being “qualified.”

Having the skill of “developing skills” is something that very few people testing against you will have.  That’s your leg up.

The Skills You Need to Get Picked

First, it’s important to point out that you won’t become an investigator if you don’t already have these skills.

So how do you build experience in interviews, investigative techniques, report writing, and overall building cases if you’re not already an investigator?

So you have to get them on the road as a patrol officer.

How Narcotics on Patrol Helps

As we’ve talked about, we’ve made the Narcotics on Patrol class for this very reason. It gives you a simple, easy-to-learn set of skills that you can go out the next day and start to use.

Take interview as an example.

You intentionally work on having a friendly, cordial, non-adversarial interview with a suspect that you’ve just arrested with a large amount of drugs in their car.  If done correctly, there’s a good chance that they will confess.

After repeated practice, your skills and instincts leads to more confessions.  You just seem to have the knack.  That same “knack” is what a homicide detective needs when they are interviewing a murder suspect and need a confession.

You’ll learn to apply case law, legal justifications, evidence management.

Pretty soon, you’ll find that it’s not only working on narcotics cases, but it’s also working on property crimes. You’ll also manage to get information during your investigations about a crime series or violent crimes.

From Good Cop to Great Investigator

In addition to being a great street cop, it will also make you an investigator.

And trust me, every investigator that you work with will know you are hardworking and talented street cop with the skills of an investigator. Your command will recognize it too.

Now imagine this scenario.  Detectives need a patrol officer to go with them on a knock-and-talk.

There’s you, and there’s a patrol officer that simply shows up everyday. They aren’t working any harder, they’re not conducting interviews in greater numbers than you are. They don’t have as many arrests as you do. They just haven’t done the work.

Who’s the sergeant going to send with the Detectives?  Better yet, who are the investigators going to request the sergeant send?

Who Do You Want to Be?

Whether you get this training or some other training, make sure you start improving yourself before you just start going with the flow.

 I know people who just went with the flow. They’re good guys who began and ended their career in the patrol car. They wanted to do other things—they just never did it.

I also know guys who proactively bettered themselves. Those guys were plucked out of patrol as soon as they were eligible. Because they were good… they made themselves good.

Which Career Path Do You Choose? 

If you want to start working on yourself, Narcotics On Patrol is the best way to start.