by Phillip Cashion

Created on: March 05, 2009

Pursuing a Michigan Career in Criminal Justice

On September 16th, 2008, I interviewed a detective of the Cass County Sheriff's Department, MI. This article contains what I learned. The detective has been a member of the Cass County Sheriff's Department for twelve and a half years. He has an associates degree in Criminal Justice as well as several course hours in specialty courses provided by the state and county. I will discuss those course hours at greater length further in this essay.

One of the first things I asked about was the job duties and responsibilities, in which he answered that he was involved with criminal investigations, SWAT, and a specialized meth and narcotics unit. Usually in the course of criminal investigation, the detectives pull the suspects into the office for interrogation to get them out of their comfort zone. When asked about his schedule, he stated that he had set hours to be on duty, but was on call 24/7. In his words, "he is pretty much tied to his cell phone." Continuing on, I asked about the his personal qualifications. The detective spoke of higher education prior to becoming an officer and the "in course" training while in the job. He had earned an associates degree locally. After that he moved on to the Academy and sheriff's office where he took courses in multiple disciplines. They are as follows:

1. Meth lab safety, dismantling, and investigations- 80 hours

2. DEA special studies- 80 hours

3. Basic detective school- 40 hours

4. SWAT- 40 hours

5. Marine division- 30 hours

6. Evidence technologies- 8 hours

7. Major crimes task force8. Driving and shooting school

9. And others

These are ongoing in course training according to the Cass County detective. One must have a certain amount of in course training hours per year to keep a police officer certification.

In Cass County, all that is required to begin a role inside the jail/ correctional areas of the sheriff's department is a high school diploma. For the role as a patrol officer the qualifications are similar, one needs a high school diploma, time in the academy, and become MCOLES certified. After these conditions are met then an applicant would take the standard entry exam, a psychological test, and have a minimum of two (2) interviews.

The detective also mentioned that his department was unionized and all applicants must start at the bottom (working in road patrol) and put in a minimum of two years before becoming eligible for consideration in taking the detective exam. In order to move up in rank and job classification an officer is evaluated on demeanor, performance, and through standardized testing. To get into the academy, a person must have thirty-two credit hours of college and must pay for the training themselves unless they are sponsored by a department. The courses in the academy with the thirty-two college credits will be equal to an associates degree from an accredited college. The academy courses last twenty- three to twenty- four weeks. But even after the academy, there is extensive in course training that must be pursued to continue in law enforcement and to succeed. Also, an officer in the State of Michigan must meet specific qualifications and re-qualify on a yearly basis.According to the detective, Michigan is one of the top states to be trained and employed in as far as law enforcement is concerned. In this interview, I learned the method and processes to become a law enforcement officer in the state of Michigan. The interview was very informative with insight to the world of local law enforcement in Cass County, Michigan.

References:

Detective of the Cass County Sheriff Department (name with held to protect anonymity)

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