Investigate serious crimes instead of answering calls. Not an entry job: you become a police officer first, then earn your way in.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $116,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $80,000 at the lower end to about $139,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 to 10 years after high school, on the usual route.
From nothing up to about $12,000, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Quebec. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$116,000
Lower end
$80,000
Upper end
$139,000
Job Bank's national median for police detectives is $55.77 an hour, about $116,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($38.46) and upper end ($67) are the bottom and top of the range for everyone in the group. Detectives are paid on their service's police grid, so the exact figure depends on the service. British Columbia has the highest provincial median, $58 an hour, followed by Alberta at $56.95.
$93,690 to $133,847
Vancouver constable pay, which you reach before promotion
Vancouver Police constables start at $93,690 and reach $133,847 after four years. Pay grids, including the rates for detective ranks, differ by service.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $12,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
You become a detective by already being a salaried police officer, so the promotion itself costs nothing. Police college and the investigation courses are paid for by your service while you draw a wage, which is why the low end is zero. The high end is an optional two year police foundations diploma paid for up front. Quebec's required 9 week investigation program at the provincial police school is paid for by your service. The real price here is years of shift work and competing internally for a limited number of seats.
You are a salaried officer the whole way. There is no tuition for becoming a detective.
Defined-benefit police pension
A pension that pays a set amount every month for life. Many officers retire in their 50s.
Health, dental, extended leave
Union
Police associations negotiate the grid.
More day shifts
Many investigative units work weekdays, with on-call.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Become a constable first. Then years of patrol, then selection and courses.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Then the same path as any police officer: requirements, testing, hiring, police college.
Get hired as a police officer
1 to 3 years including waiting
Testing, background, fitness, then Ontario Police College (13 weeks) or your province's academy. Quebec requires a college police diploma first.
Patrol
3 to 5 years
Job Bank lists several years as a police officer as the requirement. Most services want 3 to 5 years on the road before you can apply to investigative units.
Selection and courses
Months to a year
Apply to a unit, interview, then courses in general investigation, interviewing and major case management through your provincial police college or the Canadian Police College in Ottawa.
Detective rank
After 5 to 10 years total
Some services promote to detective constable or detective; others treat it as an assignment. Either way, seniority and results decide who stays.
A degree
Criminology, psychology, accounting for fraud, computer science for cybercrime.
Strong report writing
Investigations live or die on the paperwork.
Patience in interviews
Court experience
Testifying well matters.
Detectives are sworn police officers under provincial police acts or, in the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), federal law. There is no police or detective licence. Quebec is the exception: the law requires the provincial police school's diploma before you are hired, and every new investigator then takes 9 weeks there, worth 18 university credits. Moving services usually means re-applying as an experienced officer, and investigative courses transfer informally.
In Quebec you pay for police training before any force hires you, and every new investigator must pass a 9 week investigation program at the provincial police school.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary IV math in any sequence. Keep a clean record: a criminal conviction rules you out, even after a pardon.
Police Technology DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
3 years
A 3 year CEGEP (public college) program offered at colleges across Quebec, including John Abbott College in English. Admission is competitive and includes a fitness test and a medical exam.
Patrol training at the ENPQ (École nationale de police du Québec, the provincial police school)
About 4 to 5 months
15 weeks in Nicolet plus 3 preparatory weeks, living on campus and taught in French only. You pay $12,562 for 2026 to 2027, room and board included.
Work patrol
Several years
Get hired by a city force or the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police. In Quebec you traditionally spend several years as a patrol officer before you can move into investigation.
Initial police investigation program
9 weeks
9 weeks at the ENPQ, worth 18 university credits, given with Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Laval. In French. You must pass it within 30 months of being named a permanent investigator.
A 2023 change to Quebec's Police Act lets forces hire people who never trained for patrol as investigators in set fields. A regulation proposed in October 2025 names financial crime and cybercrime. These hires take a 15 week preparatory program, 9 weeks at Collège Ahuntsic and 6 at the ENPQ (École nationale de police du Québec), then the same 9 week investigation program as every other detective. Each force decides whether to use this route.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Homicide and major crimes
Sex crimes and child exploitation
High demand, heavy toll.
Fraud and financial crime
Accounting skills prized.
Cybercrime
Online fraud, ransomware, hacking.
Forensic identification
Vancouver runs a 2-year understudy program in fingerprints, photography and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic code) collection.
Undercover or drug unit experience
Languages
Comfort with technology
Phones and video are the evidence now.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
A homicide callout at 2am, then a day of scene work, canvassing, seizing video and interviews. Or a quieter fraud file: bank records, spreadsheets and a suspect interview you planned for a week. Every step is documented for disclosure to the defence. Court appearances, Crown meetings and case management paperwork take up a large share of most weeks.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
After a 1990s review of how police handled the Paul Bernardo investigation, Ontario made major case management mandatory for serious crimes, so different police services share information through one system.
A 1991 Supreme Court of Canada decision, Stinchcombe, requires police and prosecutors to hand over all relevant evidence to the defence. Detectives spend a large share of their time organizing that disclosure.
Job Bank counts about 11,900 police investigators and detectives in Canada in 2023, against about 79,800 police officers. The median retirement age for detectives is 61.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Police and fire first, then the rest of the field. See every career in law and public safety.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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