Gruesome murder scenes, grieving families, long hours, and an occasional standoff with a
cardboard cutout are just a small part of what a homicide detective has to face on a daily basis.
When LAPD Detective Christopher Barling spoke to The Guardian in 2013, he explained that, first and
foremost, being a homicide detective means working very early shifts and very long hours. A normal
shift starts as early as 6 a.m., with the homicide detective talking to their squad over a cup of
coffee and getting updates on all cases. Homicide detectives also tend to work nine-hour days.
Having weekends off is not a luxury all homicide detectives can afford. Prospects,
a UK-based website about employment, confirms that being a detective in the United Kingdom
often entails working off hours and varied shifts. The Met Police explains that, while individual,
cultural, and religious needs will always be considered, sometimes it's just not possible,
since they're an emergency service and serving Londoners comes first.
Of course, if a homicide case is reported, the homicide detective
has the responsibility to come to the crime scene. So, even if their shift has just ended,
a new one begins with the new case. And when a homicide detective deals
with a fresh murder case, they rarely get to go home when the clock strikes five.
According to LAPD Detective Christopher Barling,
there are two kinds of shifts a homicide detective can have.
There's the regular shift: The squad gets together to discuss current cases,
and the detective supervisor delegates certain tasks to the officers and chooses who will be
on call with them. After the morning debrief is over, the homicide detective supervisor
reviews search warrants and court orders, and handles various administrative jobs,
from timesheets to overtime slips. And of course, if there are ongoing cases,
the homicide detective will stay in touch with the updates and decide the next moves.
On the other hand, there's a very different kind of shift. Barling told The Guardian,
"When a murder occurs it is rarely during business hours; it is usually between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.
So, on those days, my watch officially starts when I arrive at the crime scene."
The homicide detective supervisor has to be among the first ones to arrive at the scene
to assign tasks to their squad. These things include interviewing witnesses,
finding surveillance footage, booking evidence, searching through criminal databases,
re-canvassing the crime scene for more evidence, and meeting with specialized officers. Afterward,
the homicide detective meets with their superiors to discuss the case, and sometimes,
they also meet with gang intervention personnel to prevent a potential retaliation attack.
Even though homicide detectives earn their jobs after years of experience as officers,
there are still several higher ranks above them. Homicide detectives are only second in
the police career ladder after police officers. Promotions can earn them higher ranks: sergeant,
lieutenant, captain, commander, deputy chief, and chief of police. But should detectives be seeking
promotions, they will be closely observed by their superiors, and sometimes, by their squad, too.
Former Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding confirms that your first few
jobs as a homicide detective can be very intimidating, as you're being watched
by several seasoned members of the police force, telling Channel 4's Murder Island :
"Uh, you know, you should be batting at the top of your game. So of course that
pressure thinks, '﻿Well, I hope they think I'm going to do a good job.'﻿"
The scrutiny doesn't stop after the first jobs. 60 Minutes Australia tells the very
relevant story of former Detective Gary Jubelin: a top dog of Australian police who put dozens of
notorious criminals behind bars. But after he was seen illegally recording conversations with
suspects, he was fired. His illustrious career did not put him above the law,
and it goes to show that homicide detectives are never really left to their own devices.
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of being a homicide detective is that you never know
where a murder case might lead you. Sometimes, a homicide detective takes on a seemingly small
case, only to realize it's a tiny piece of a big puzzle. Around the turn of the 21st century,
former homicide detective Gary Jubelin discovered a gruesome crime scene: A body had been hacked
into eight bits and thrown into the Hastings River in Australia. The body was identified as Terry
Falconer, a local drug dealer. Jubelin went on to follow the trail of crimes that surrounded him and
the narcotics gang he was involved in, eventually uncovering a huge network of organized crime.
Over the following decade, he arrested 14 people for over 100 offenses. It
culminated with the arrest of kingpin Anthony Perish. He commented about Falconer's murder:
"It was a detective's dream in that it had every
twist and turn that you would expect of an organized crime type murder."
One of the trickiest parts of a homicide detective's job is
having to talk to the victim's family. As retired MPD detective Mitch Credle
explained via the YouTube channel "Cop Stories", homicide detectives
have the daunting task of informing a family their loved one has been murdered, saying,
"[...] knocking on that door, you felt like the Grim Reaper."
Sometimes, the families expect to hear the bad news. But other times, it's a complete
surprise, and homicide detectives have to be reassuring during their emotional breakdown.
On "Inside the Mind of a Homicide Detective",
former homicide detective Simon Harding called the experience,
"...very very difficult for a family to comprehend firstly that they have lost somebody but in that
way. It's not about just about the death, it's in the way in which they died."
But Harding says, no matter how gruesome the end they met, the victim's family has
to know the truth. It's much better for the family to hear the truth from the detective,
rather than from the news. Having an honest relationship with the family helps them better
cope with the tragedy, and most homicide detectives take great pride in solving
cases for the families, notes The Guardian. LAPD detective Christopher Barling remarked,
"These days [when a suspect is convicted] are special because we
can then explain to a family that we know who is responsible for killing their loved one."
It's a rewarding moment for a homicide detective to make an arrest,
but the investigation doesn't end there. First of all, after an arrest has to come a confession,
if the suspect is indeed guilty. And if there isn't a confession, a detective should gather
enough evidence to convict the suspect. Then, if there's a trial, many homicide detectives decide
to stick around all the way to the end. Oklahoma Detective Jason White explained to Zenger:
"I try to make it to every single one of my court cases in reference to closing
arguments. I'll wait around with the family oftentimes until they come back
with a verdict. I try to hang out with them until this thing is finally put to rest."
When taking on a homicide case, detectives are doing the work on
behalf of the victim's family, and there's no justice for the family
until there's a conviction. Detective Christopher Barling told The Guardian,
"If I am to use an old cliché, as homicide detectives we get to speak for the dead."
During the trial, homicide detectives can do this by testifying against the suspect
and helping the prosecution confirm the necessary evidence needed to convict them.
A homicide detective can work a single murder investigation or several at once,
in various stages of development, often working cases as they come in.
There are many kinds of tasks a homicide detective can do during a murder investigation. During the
first two or three days, the detective analyzes the crime scene and canvases it for evidence
and witnesses. Then, they have to meet the coroner and understand the cause of death,
confirming that they're dealing with a murder. Afterward, the detective helps gather things
like CCTV footage, or reviews the footage collected by their squad.
Homicide detectives are also in charge of interviewing suspects and witnesses,
which also must be done in the first several days after the murder has been reported or discovered.
If the case isn't solved within the first several days, homicide detectives continue to work on it,
but if a fresh case comes forward, they'll prioritize it. Throughout the rest of the case,
detectives will maintain contact with the victim's family, review reports,
identify leads, and communicate with their squad about updates and strategies.
One of the easiest ways for a detective to arrest a suspect is a witness report,
which is easier said than done. As Oklahoma Detective Jason White explained to Zenger,
some witnesses are particularly reluctant when talking to the police:
"Most of these people that are involved in the case to some extent don't really
want to meet with us the first time, let alone for one or two other visits to a courtroom."
Retired London Metropolitan Police detective Steven Keogh explained to The Crime Report,
witnesses can be just plain scared, saying,
"Nobody chooses to be in that position. [...] However,
people often also just don't want to give you information."
White describes that a homicide detective's work often involves convincing witnesses that
it's the right thing to speak to the police and get justice for the victim. Unfortunately,
social media makes witness intimidation much easier today. White continued,
"People get blasted on some of these social media platforms that they've talked to the cops,
or the defendant has released some of the documents that are a part of the case."
Modern-day homicide detectives need to be aware of the implications of
social media and making an investigation public. Keogh speaks to the importance of
ensuring witnesses still give valuable accounts of what happened and avoid
being influenced by what they learned through other information channels.
Homicide detectives need to be physically and psychologically prepared to face danger,
stress, and exhaustion, but some of the crime scenes they encounter are tough
even for the most seasoned detectives. Former Detective Chief Inspector Simon
Harding told Channel 4 about one of his most gruesome crime scenes:
"A man had been dismembered and found in a bath,
and his daughter had pretty much turned up when the killers [...] were dismembering him."
She was also killed, and their bodies were discovered days later in a serious
state of decomposition. Harding had just been promoted to chief
inspector but found the case very difficult to deal with nonetheless.
Former Homicide Detective Paul Maleary describes even witnessing a gruesome attack to LADBible TV:
"A lady was walking down the street. [...] She'd just dropped the kids off at school
[and] the estranged husband took a machete and he took her head off."
Maleary also remembers a bizarre scene where the family of a deceased man requested to have
a picture taken around him at the mortuary, with all his relatives showing a thumbs-up.
Amidst moments like these, homicide detectives have to remain level-headed and rational.
TV shows often depict homicide cases as being over in a matter of days, sometimes even hours,
but ask any real-life homicide detective and they'll say life is not like movies.
Former Denver Homicide Detective John Priest explains to Regis University:
"But then you have that group that falls outside of that, I mean to where you're
going years later before you're able to bring resolution to those particular cases."
LAPD Detective Christopher Barling told The Guardian that, while U.S. detectives solve
around 60-70% of cases every year, only 30-40% belong to that calendar year –- so around half of
them are at least a year old. Sadly, several cases go years without being solved. In 2013, Barling
confirmed there were around 250 cases still unsolved in Los Angeles, some of them a decade
old. Former Detective Paul Maleary explained that sometimes it takes at least 12 hours just for the
detective to talk to the suspect, because of all the paperwork that surrounds the arrest and all
the preparation the detective has to do before a formal interview. Background procedures also
delay the solving of a case, but they ensure it's done right, and no corners are being cut.
In certain situations, homicide detectives point their fingers at the wrong suspect. In March 1994,
retired MPD Homicide Detective Mitch Credle was called to a double murder scene,
following a drug-related home invasion. According to Cop Stories, Credle arrested two men after
getting a report from a witness. A month later, while the two men were in custody, Credle was
called to a triple homicide that perfectly fit the pattern of the March attack. When
Credle arrested a suspect related to the April attack, he confessed to being responsible for both
attacks — the two men in custody were innocent. Credle remembered, simply, "It tore me apart."
But there are also more comic mistakes, too, as former Chief Inspector Detective
Simon Harding admitted to Channel 4. An alarm had gone off at a Blockbuster store at 2 a.m.,
and one of his colleagues called for backup, believing it was an armed robbery. But after
a crowd of people gathered for a 4-hour standoff, another detective realized they
were pursuing two cardboard cutouts of Bruce Willis and Whoopi Goldberg.