I understand why it might have started out this way when police forces were first becoming established, but why does it continue to be this way?
These seem like entirely different skill sets, and surely it’s easier to teach them basic police skills as part of their training rather than having them stay as beat cops for several years first.
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I think that more people would want to be detectives, than would want to be beat cops.
If you held the selection process before entry, people who don’t make it in to the detective program might opt out of policing all together, starving the rank and file cops of otherwise great applicants.
If you make being a beat cop part of the training process of becoming a detective, you enrich the lower levels and who knows, maybe after being a beat cop for a few years, failing to get into a detective position might not be enough for the person to leave the force entirely.
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