JoeyJoe... my dad was a senior crime scene analyst at LVMPD, same as the CSI show. He's now the Criminalistics Supervisor at HendersonPD - kinda like Gill Grisham's job. The writer of the show rode with him to take notes... and he will be an advisor for a British TV Station that will be doing a series on the topic.
The CSI show makes the job out to be a glamorous one... it is not. Not even close. A lot of people will tell you that Criminal Justice or Forensics is a good thing to study. This is not true for the most part. Much of what you learn will be incorrect or not current... not useful. It takes on-job training to do things correctly.
Many departments will require a college degree of some kind. Prior experience is not necessary... again department dependent. Reason being... it's easier to train someone from scratch than to retrain someone who is set in their ways... cops included. "We didn't do it like this in Texas..." stuff like that. Some places pick up cops... many, civilians since it is a civilian position.
It's a good paying job... in this town I think they start at like 50k or so... It's hard work, there's a lot of stuff you got to do that's not fun, actually most is not fun - diagrams and what not. You're gonna be on call, you're gonna work long hours... you will always be behind and NEVER caught up... unless people all of a sudden stop killing each other and stuff - which brings job security to mind... your customer base always increases in size... business is always good if you know what I mean. :)
If you have any specific questions about the field... I can ask for you...
The CSI show makes the job out to be a glamorous one... it is not. Not even close. A lot of people will tell you that Criminal Justice or Forensics is a good thing to study. This is not true for the most part. Much of what you learn will be incorrect or not current... not useful. It takes on-job training to do things correctly.
Many departments will require a college degree of some kind. Prior experience is not necessary... again department dependent. Reason being... it's easier to train someone from scratch than to retrain someone who is set in their ways... cops included. "We didn't do it like this in Texas..." stuff like that. Some places pick up cops... many, civilians since it is a civilian position.
It's a good paying job... in this town I think they start at like 50k or so... It's hard work, there's a lot of stuff you got to do that's not fun, actually most is not fun - diagrams and what not. You're gonna be on call, you're gonna work long hours... you will always be behind and NEVER caught up... unless people all of a sudden stop killing each other and stuff - which brings job security to mind... your customer base always increases in size... business is always good if you know what I mean. :)
If you have any specific questions about the field... I can ask for you...
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