During our Childhood the show which has tied us up to Television sets is CID, we have grown up seeing ACP Pradyuman and his subordinate Inspector Daya solving murder mysteries and lot more cases with ultimate presence of mind and observation skills, and many of us decided to become a CID officers like them.
So, today in this article you will be knowing all the details related to, how to become a CID officer, including the eligibility criteria, qualification, selection process, exam syllabus, and many more.
CID (Central Intelligence Department) Officers work as part of Detective agency under Government of India. This department was initially started by the British government way back in the 19th Century, which was then tasked with two different activities Special Branch and Crime Branch.
These officers play a vital role in any democracy for that matter. In India, they not only solve murder mysteries but also thefts, Cybercrimes, and also any kind of domestic offence too.
CID officers are mostly a part of state police and work simultaneously with them in solving the cases; they take up the cases that are forwarded to them by the officers who are in the ranks like DGP, AGP, IGP.
Also Read: How to Become DSP in Police?
How to Become CID Officer after 12th Class?
To become a CID officer not just qualification, a lot depends on the character of the person to be successful in this particular career. Starting first with the education:
Education Qualification:
Candidates who are willing to be a CID officer have to clear a UPSC level examination which is conducted by the Government of India and UPSC board. The educational qualification to attend this exam is:
- The Candidate should complete his/her 12th standard in any of the streams (Maths/Biology/Commerce) background with a minimum of 60% of marks in all the subjects.
- Candidate should also complete his/her graduation in any stream with Min 55% of marks from the state or Center recognized university.
Students who are pursuing their last year of graduation can also attempt for UPSC exam given that they qualify for the age limit given in the notification for the current year.
Age Limit:
- The Candidate should be with Min age of 21 years to be a CID officer as well to write the UPSC exam.
- The Candidate should have a Max age of 27 years to be a CID officer.
*Note: (Age Relaxation ):
- SC/ST candidates get an age relaxation of 5 years to be a CID officer.
- OBC Candidates have an age relaxation of 7 years.
Also Read: How to Become an IRS (Indian Revenue Services) Officer?
Can the candidates attempt this exam any number of times?
The answer is, NO.
- General Category candidate can give 4 attempts.
- OBC Candidate can give 7 attempts
- SC/ST candidates can give any number of attempts.
Physical Standards for a CID Officer;
Height: Men 165cms Women 150cms
Chest: 76cms
Eye Sight: Long Vision 6/6 and 6/9
Near Vision 0.6 and 0.8
UPSC Exam Pattern:
UPSC Exam is divided into 3 different stages:
- Prelims
- Mains
- Interview
Prelims exam is the first stage of the exam where a lot of screening is done and most percentages of the students are filtered in this round.
It is further divided into General Studies and Mental Ability.
Each paper carries around 200 marks each and consists of 150 questions and the exam will be conducted for 2 hours and 30 min.
- General Studies Syllabus
- National and International Events
- Environmental Issues
- Disaster and Pandemic Management
- Indian History and Heritage
- Economic and Social Issues
- Indian Polity and Constitution
- Governance and Policy Making
- General Science and Achievements of Indian Science
- Current affairs and Arts, Culture, Society
These are the topics that will be covered in the first part of the paper.
- Mental Ability Syllabus
- Analytical Skills
- Reasoning
- Interpretation skills
- English Grammar
After qualifying for the prelims you’ve to attend the Mains Examination which includes writing the answers for the given questions rather than the Objective-based questions.
- Mains Paper is divided into 6 papers or groups
- General Essays
- Constitution and Governance
- General English
- History, Geography, and culture
- Indian Society, Governance
- Economic and Development
- Science and Technology
These are the 6 different papers and the candidate should get maximum marks to qualify for the next round and try to reach the cut-off marks. The Mains Paper carries around 900 marks, and the time for this is around 3 hours.
Candidates who cleared this round will be selected for the Personal Interview round, which carries 100 marks.
The candidates selected in this examination get a chance to select the cadre based on his rank.
The person is then posted as ACP Assistant commissioner of police and he has to complete at least 2 years of service to qualify as a CID officer.
Also Read: Difference between IAS and IPS
Books List:
The candidates who are attending this exam have to follow a few of the book list to clear the exam,
- The Ancient History
- Indian Polity by Laxamikanth
- Modern India by Spectrum’s
- Yojana Magazine
- 6th to 12th NCERT books of Science and Social subjects
You must also go through previous papers to perform well in the examination.
And also the study material given by your institute is important.
There many other book lists that can be followed during the preparation for this exam.
Can you become a CID Officer after the 12th directly?
No, you can’t directly join higher post. However, you can join as a constable and then prepare of examination with required qualification to become CID officer.
The candidate who has completed his Inter can join the state police from whichever state he belongs to, there he gets recruited as a constable and later promoted to the CID team during his initial days he will be working under the higher rank officers.
If you want to start from the higher position, then you should complete graduation and then can join the state police as Inspector. The Candidates who wants to join the above 2 positions have to go through 3 different stages.
- Written Examination
- Physical test
- Interview
Notification for this exam is given by the State government and based on that notification you can apply for the post.
CID Officers are allotted to work in various roles, let’s see some of the roles given to these officers during their profession.
- Fraud Investigator: These officers take care of different frauds which are committed try to get the right evidence and close the cases.
- Paralegal Officer: These officers take care of the legal part they also help lawyers in filing the cases too. They also understand the legality and solve the cases.
- Criminologists: These officers study a lot of cases, and try to analyze the other cases and try to find the analytical view and solve the cases.
- Narcotics officer: They try to persuade the drug smugglers and stop the illegal flow of the drugs in the system.
Ranks of the CID Officers
- Additional Director General of Police
- Inspector general of Police
- General Sub-Division (DIG)
- Superintendent of Police
- Deputy Superintendent of Police
- Inspector
- Sub Inspector
- Constable
Salaries for the CID Officers:
The salaries of these officers range from 2 lakh to 11 lakh per annum. The salaries of these officers depend on the years of experience they work.
Salaries of the mid-level officers completely depend on the state he is working in and according to their salary structure and their experience.
Advantages of CID Officer:
The CID Officer is given a good amount of salaries and perks
They also are rewarded for their bravery in solving a lot of mysterious cases with the team.
The CID officers once retired can also solve many cases partly working for the private agencies.
Disadvantages of CID Officer:
The Officers have to work in very extreme threatening conditions where they could even lose their lives or be badly attacked.
The officers are never accepted by the authorities when they are caught on enemy grounds.
If their cover is blown though they retire enemies might attack them at any point in their life.
Hence the above mentioned criteria and procedures are to be followed to become a successful CID Officer. Thus there are both pros and cons to the job profile and can also have a successful career.
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