How To Become A Sheriff's Detective: What It Is and Career Path

What is a sheriff's detective and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sheriff's detective. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.09 an hour? That's $54,266 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 20,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSheriff's DetectiveUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $54,266

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.91%

Asian 2.66%

Black or African American 9.87%

Hispanic or Latino 14.39%

Unknown 4.36%

White 67.81%

Gender

female 14.29%

male 85.71%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.1

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a sheriff's detective

Explore sheriff's detective education requirements

Most common sheriff's detective degrees

Bachelor's

58.8 %

High School Diploma

17.6 %

Associate

17.6 %

Start to develop specific sheriff's detective skills

Skills	Percentages
Patrol	100.00%

Complete relevant sheriff's detective training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New sheriff's detectives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a sheriff's detective based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real sheriff's detective resumes.

Research sheriff's detective duties and responsibilities

Initiate and conduct investigations concerning illegal narcotics and firearms trafficking and perform official duty as an undercover operative during those investigations.
Arrest a DWI suspect and book into jail.

Prepare your sheriff's detective resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sheriff's detective resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a sheriff's detective resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable sheriff's detective resume templates

Build a professional sheriff's detective resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your sheriff's detective resume.