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I worked the road for 15 years before I moved into our crime room. The transition was easy for me because in my department our crime and patrol work closely together, and for most crimes patrol conducts the initial investigation, unless the crime is serious (ie homicide). Once the initial report is taken it is up to the crime cpl to determine if the patrol member does the follow up or if the case is sent to an investigator.
I really enjoyed working in the crime unit, and handled a few high profile cases. The one thing I really liked about patrol ( I worked mostly midnight shifts) was if something was really messed up, I always had the option of calling for an investigator. When I became the investigator, I was the one being called out at 2am for the mess.
The thing that will benifit you the most is taking any and all extra classes you can, such as child abuse investigations, crime scene eviidence, photography, and any other class that will help you do your job better. Read, read, read. Take some major case reports done by your peers and see how they do things. Having good samples of affidavits, and warrants will also help a lot.
My first case in the crime room was a meth lab. When I worked patrol, we pretty much secured the scene and helped with evidence collection and scene security, and did interviews. Never did the complaints for one, so I had to look all the info up. Took a while, and the subsequent ones are always easier, but it's better to do the research before you need it, and have time to do it.
I really enjoyed working in the crime unit, and handled a few high profile cases. The one thing I really liked about patrol ( I worked mostly midnight shifts) was if something was really messed up, I always had the option of calling for an investigator. When I became the investigator, I was the one being called out at 2am for the mess.
The thing that will benifit you the most is taking any and all extra classes you can, such as child abuse investigations, crime scene eviidence, photography, and any other class that will help you do your job better. Read, read, read. Take some major case reports done by your peers and see how they do things. Having good samples of affidavits, and warrants will also help a lot.
My first case in the crime room was a meth lab. When I worked patrol, we pretty much secured the scene and helped with evidence collection and scene security, and did interviews. Never did the complaints for one, so I had to look all the info up. Took a while, and the subsequent ones are always easier, but it's better to do the research before you need it, and have time to do it.
Back in the early 90s some of our crime people had 100+ open cases, but that was due to having a crime commander that would not allow them to close cases with no leads. It put me off of the crime room for years. Every time I thought about it, the image of me standing in a pile of reports quickly made the thought go away. I transferred to another station with a more realistic commander that would go over cases and if no leads, would close them himself. Another consideration is location. While working in Pike County, our crime rate was over the top, being on the border of NY and NJ, with a summertime population of over 100,000 people. I transferred to a much slower area with half the population, and mostly farming communities, and was able to work a case to death. I wouldn't want a crime job in a very high crime area. Good investigations take time. 
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