Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Police ranks, Bill's in particular

What rank would Bill Henderson have been before he made inspector? I'm thinking, particularly, over a... let's say about three-year period before he became an inspector.

Captain?

Allowing for his exceptional record, etc., could he have moved through two ranks in such a short time?

If so, which ones?

Thanks!

`Toc

Rank structure varies slightly from place to place, but I think the NYPD would make a good model.

According to Wikipedia\'s article :

So, one step below Inspector is Deputy Inspector. Captain is two ranks below Inspector, and promotion from Captain on up is "discretionary." Exceptional work (and possibly an opening above you) can get you promoted quickly. With passable work, you might stay at Captain for the rest of your career.

Don't know what a typical promotion time is, or even if there is such a thing, but you could probably get away with Captain to Inspector in three years if you really wanted to. Especially if you consider the link to Lois. They obviously knew each other well, and she'd risen from entry level to top of her field (with multiple Kerths to her name) in about the same time period.

Working with her on a couple of Kerth-worthy busts might well get him promoted, and having his name in those Kerth-winning stories certainly wouldn't hurt. Someone the public "knows" and "trusts" (thanks to the media coverage) is more likely to get promoted to a more prominent position.

Paul

Adding a little more to Paul's wealth of information. A lot depends on the department. Even the levels offered depend somewhat on department--which means you can do lots of fun things in your story

As far as promotion. Most decent sized departments promote up to the level of captain via a test. When a position opens up for captain admin offers all eligible lieutenants a chance to take the test. Generally, a person has to serve anywhere from 2-5 years in their current position before being eligible to take the test.

When the admin receives the test results, people are promoted out of a top percentage of results (top 10% usually). Other criteria added to test results are items in the personnel file like commendations, awards and overall perception by superiors/other officers. So technically this is supposed to assure that the most qualified overall gets promoted as it uses both a test and other criteria.

From captain on up, it's based mainly on politics and performance. You can rise pretty rapidly (although they try to be circumspect about it time-wise). As Metropolis is a big city, an inspector who achieved that rank as a detective would outrank an Inspector in charge of Records. And it'd be easier to get to inspector in the first place as a detective.

Bill Henderson is a detective and, as Paul says, would be higher profile--and he seems to be good at public relations which would get him everywhere. If you want him to move up two ranks, I'd say you could believably do it in the course of 5 years. Probably not 3 unless he single-handedly saved the president or something that huge. Departments try to be careful not to promote too quickly to keep bitterness at a minimum.

Thank you both!

That's exactly what I needed (and wanted ) to hear!

~Toc