Post job
zippia ai icon

Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

Police detective skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Jennifer Gibbs Ph.D.,
Dr. Durmus Alper CAMLIBEL Ph.D.
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical police detective skills. We ranked the top skills for police detectives based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 10.9% of police detective resumes contained patrol as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a police detective needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 police detective skills for your resume and career

1. Patrol

Here's how police detectives use patrol:
  • Performed traffic patrol functions, including identifying traffic infractions, and investigating traffic accidents in accordance with Maryland State law.
  • Promoted to Detective following a competitive promotional exam and demonstrating exceptional performance and motivation as a Patrol Officer.

2. Law Enforcement Agencies

Here's how police detectives use law enforcement agencies:
  • Participated in major investigations involving multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies to include foreign law enforcement.
  • Coordinated investigative activities with ATF, FBI and other law enforcement agencies on public corruption investigations

3. Criminal Cases

A criminal case is a court proceeding in which a person is charged with committing a crime against the state or the community. Such individuals are brought for trials, to decide they are guilty or not. There are two kinds of criminal cases misdemeanors and felonies. A misdemeanor is a crime on a lower level like traffic offenses or minor assaults. While felonies are offenses on a higher level.

Here's how police detectives use criminal cases:
  • Prepared criminal cases for trial and appeared and testified in court as a state's witness/arresting officer.
  • Processed and analyzed felony crime scenes to solve criminal cases in city and region.

4. Local Laws

Here's how police detectives use local laws:
  • Maintain proficiency and knowledge of federal, state, and local laws and ordinances.
  • Maintain a strong understanding of federal, state and local laws, as well as department policy and procedures.

5. Evidence Collection

Here's how police detectives use evidence collection:
  • Process crime scenes, overseeing evidence collection and soliciting laboratory examination.
  • Teach various related topics including homicide, sex assault, missing persons investigations, crime scene investigation and evidence collection.

6. Criminal Law

Here's how police detectives use criminal law:
  • Gained an in depth knowledge of criminal law procedures.
  • Examine crime scenes to gather physical evidence and other information relevant to the identification and prosecution of violators of criminal laws.

Choose from 10+ customizable police detective resume templates

Build a professional police detective resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your police detective resume.

7. Criminal Investigations

Here's how police detectives use criminal investigations:
  • Assigned to Criminal Investigation Division, Juvenile Unit, responsible for investigating all juvenile related crimes including sexual molestation and assault.
  • Conduct Criminal investigations and Civilian Complainants, interview Witness, Victims and potential suspects involving cases.

8. Internal Investigations

Investigations that are conducted to inquire about any organization's internal matters and operations are termed an internal investigation. Internal investigations are commonly held due to the allegations of embezzlement, corruption, harassment, or other charges. Some companies also conduct internal investigations to keep themselves diligent and safeguard themselves from any unwanted charges.

Here's how police detectives use internal investigations:
  • Conducted internal investigations and asset protection associates training.
  • Conducted internal investigations of officers alleged in policy violations and customer service concerns.

9. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how police detectives use child abuse:
  • Investigated 70 violent crimes each year, including homicide, sexual assault, robbery, child abuse and domestic violence.
  • Investigated physical and sexual child abuse cases and conducted forensic interviews of child victims.

10. Surveillance Operations

Here's how police detectives use surveillance operations:
  • Organized and executed numerous undercover surveillance operations using electronic recording equipment.
  • Led Intelligence Unit managing personal and technical surveillance operations.

11. Public Safety

Public safety can be defined as the well-being or protection of a community, citizen, or nation as a whole. There are 4 basic elements that come under public safety namely: national security, border policy, countering crime, and emergency management.

Here's how police detectives use public safety:
  • Conducted various protective services which included law enforcement, criminal activity investigations, and public safety.
  • Compiled statistical information and prepared reports for use by the Director of Public Safety.

12. Homicide

Here's how police detectives use homicide:
  • Conducted felony investigations ranging from fraud to homicide.
  • Received the FBI Directors commendation during the largest federal state homicide investigation and trial in county history.

13. Sexual Assault

Here's how police detectives use sexual assault:
  • Investigated major crimes to include homicides, robberies, sexual assaults, special victims and violent crimes.
  • Assigned to various specialized units namely, Tactical, Robbery, Narcotics and the Sexual Assault Units.

14. Crime Prevention

Here's how police detectives use crime prevention:
  • Designed a crime prevention program, which fostered community based policing to achieve a 40 percent reduction in stolen items.
  • Enhance neighborhood safety by providing crime prevention statistics through informal contacts with the community.

15. Burglary

Here's how police detectives use burglary:
  • Work assigned case load ranging from the crimes of Identity Theft, Forgery, Burglary, Assault, Rape and Murder.
  • Conducted follow up investigations of Burglary, Theft and Assaults.
top-skills

What skills help Police Detectives find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on police detective resumes?

Jennifer Gibbs Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Pennsylvania State University - Harrisburg

Police officers need many skills to be successful on the job. The most important are written and oral communication skills and the ability to make ethical decisions with limited information quickly. Written communications skills are crucial. If a police report is poorly worded or incomplete, it can derail a criminal case. Police officers also need to talk to people of all ages from all walks of life in any circumstance. Often, police meet people on what may be the worst day of their lives when emotions are running high. Police need to be able to help calm a person while gathering information. Police need to be able to use their words and body language to empathize with someone who has been victimized, and they need to project authority, so people making poor decisions obey their commands.
This may be common sense, but research has demonstrated that communication and ethical decision-making skills are important for police officers. (See the research article published in 2017 in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, entitled "An assessment of the relative importance of criminal justice learning objectives," by Baker and colleagues.) Baker and colleagues asked students, professionals, and college professors to rate the skills of hypothetical job applicants. These participants rated the following as the most important characteristics for criminal justice applicants (including law enforcement officers):

Ethics
Oral communication
Critical thinking
Sensitivity to diversity
Written communication skills

What police detective skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Dr. Durmus Alper CAMLIBEL Ph.D.Dr. Durmus Alper CAMLIBEL Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic apparently has brought uncertainty to the job market, and job opportunities, especially in some of the social sciences, are reduced. There is an old Turkish saying, "bread is in the mouth of the lion" (ekmek aslanın ağzında) that sums it up nicely. It implies that it is a struggle to make a living. Life after college is not easy. There is too much competition in the job market. Suppose graduates need to take a gap year. In that case, they need to continue to learn after graduation—an extra set of skills that can put them ahead of other applicants—learning another language can put the graduates on the top of other candidates since there are plenty of applicants just like them. Becoming fluent in a second language can bring graduates several advantages.

They can also apply for internship programs of local and federal criminal justice agencies during a gap year. The graduates can observe a criminal justice agency's working environment and the culture of a specific community. They can decide if they want to serve in the organization and the community. They should also consider international organizations' internship programs, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) or Office of Counter-Terrorism internship programs. The UNODC has an office in New York. This internship program provides a framework for students (enrolled in, or have completed, the final academic year of a bachelor's level or equivalent degree programs) to develop their professional skills and gain practical work experience in an international environment. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, applicants may be requested to undertake the internship online.

List of police detective skills to add to your resume

Police detective skills

The most important skills for a police detective resume and required skills for a police detective to have include:

  • Patrol
  • Law Enforcement Agencies
  • Criminal Cases
  • Local Laws
  • Evidence Collection
  • Criminal Law
  • Criminal Investigations
  • Internal Investigations
  • Child Abuse
  • Surveillance Operations
  • Public Safety
  • Homicide
  • Sexual Assault
  • Crime Prevention
  • Burglary
  • Arrest Warrants
  • Subpoenas
  • Police Academy
  • Identity Theft
  • Police Reports
  • Physical Evidence
  • Domestic Violence
  • Crime Scenes
  • Background Investigations
  • Firearms
  • DEA
  • Court Testimony
  • Investigative Reports
  • Develop Leads
  • Criminal Acts
  • Court Proceedings
  • Auto Theft
  • Court Cases
  • Financial Crimes
  • Patrol Division
  • Federal Agencies
  • ATF
  • District Court
  • Public Speaking
  • Property Crimes
  • Grand Jury
  • Submit Reports
  • Drug Enforcement Administration
  • Sex Crimes
  • Robbery
  • Criminal Complaints
  • Court Appearances
  • Violent Crimes
  • DNA

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Browse protective service jobs