Welcome to the Investigative Department

Gene Hunt pictured because he kicks ass.

Well, I'm a wee bit bored, and feel like I should be posting something, so partially for my own reference, should my memory ever blank on the subject, and partially for the sake of sharing, I'm going to post the rank structure of the investigative department of the LPD. Ranks are listed in descending order.

Chief Inspector
Inspector
Deputy Inspector
Staff Inspector
Captain
Lieutenant (UK pronunciation, honestly only because I think it sounds cooler)
Sergeant
Corporal
Detective
Detective-Investigator

And then we have the big-wigs, who are technically ranks, but there's only one of each:

Chief Superintendent
Superintendent
Deputy Superintendent

Promotion up to Sergeant isn't too terribly hard. Lieutenant and above requires either some damn fine work, or a lot of years on the force, or both. Paul Beckett is a bit young for a Staff Inspector, being 33, but he was promoted for the same case that brought his former partner, Damian Croughbar, to Inspector, despite being only 36. And yes I am aware what Damian's surname looks like. First part of his surname is pronounced akin to Clough, second part like there's an ae (or i for non-Latin geeks) in it. Wow I fail at explaining this. Maybe I'll just record myself saying it and upload it later. Anyway, it is not pronounced how you're probably thinking. Don't ask me why he has that name because even I don't know.

Daniel will probably be a pretty fast riser, too, because if a series comes of it like I hope it does, I want it flow more or less in real-time. If there's a large gap between the first and second books, I'll set things closer together and let it flow from there. Officers who are 18/19 when they become a Detective-Investigator usually hit Beckett's rank between 39-43. Daniel is 26 when he joins the force. If we assume a best case scenario, that makes him 46 by the time he's a Staff Inspector. I like to think he'd stop taking promotions at Inspector, which if we again assume a best case scenario, it would take a good ten to fifteen more years to hit that rank from Staff Inspector. If he weren't a fast riser, he'd be at retiring age before I got to do much of anything.