New programme makes the profession of criminal investigator future-proof

In January 2025, the new programme Bachelor of Criminal Investigation will start. Why is this new programme necessary? What does it cover? And how was it developed? We asked Willeke Feenstra from the team behind the Master of Criminal Investigation and Mijchanou Kowalczyk, representative of the national People and Organisation portfolio. Both were involved in designing the programme. ‘This bachelor’s programme is great. It is incredibly important for high-quality criminal investigation.’

The profession of criminal investigator has changed a great deal in recent years. In the past, criminal investigations depended mainly on interrogations. Now, the vast amount of data available offers numerous possibilities. ‘Data is the real gamechanger’, according to Kowalczyk. ‘We extract data from crypto telephones, cars and social media channels.’ Criminal investigators must have the necessary skills to store the different types of data and establish the links between them. But they must also be able to explain why some data is relevant to the investigation while other information is not.’

‘We also expect criminal investigators to be able to cooperate with other parties. Think of public and private parties, such as municipalities and banks.’ This means that criminal investigation requires skills that were not needed in the past. Consequently, the police have updated their job profile for the position of criminal investigator. In response, the Netherlands Police Academy has developed this new programme.

How to start a new bachelor’s programme from scratch? 

In 2022, Feenstra accepted this challenge together with an education specialist and two lecturers from the Master of Criminal Investigation. They took the qualification file as their starting point. This file contains clear descriptions of the skills a student must possess to complete the bachelor’s programme. The file was used to design the outlines of the programme, including the core themes, knowledge areas, and teaching guidelines. 

A three-day ‘Educational Design Experience’ at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven helped them on their way. Feenstra: ‘There, we could discuss our ideas with fellow lecturers from other universities of applied sciences, focusing mainly on form and design: What is the best way to test factual knowledge? How can we offer courses in a flexible manner? And what is the optimum combination of online and offline classes?

The three-day experience allowed us to really think about the ‘student journey’ through this bachelor’s programme. This journey encompasses all of a student’s experiences with the programme, from the first moment of contact until the last interaction. Next, we translated this journey into appropriate learning modules’. 

Co-creation with lecturers, practitioners, and cooperating organisations

For the contents of the bachelor’s programme, Feenstra and her team held regular meetings with lecturers and researchers working for the Centre of Knowledge for Crime Control, Intelligence and Criminal Investigations. They also involved practitioners by asking criminal investigators to join them to explain specific aspects of their work. For example, how they use investigation methods, prepare files, or reconstruct scenarios as part of a criminal investigation. 

Other organisations that cooperate with the police were also involved in the process of co-creation, such as the Regional Information and Expertise Centres for combatting undermining crime (RIEC). Kowalczyk: ‘RIECs take a broader approach and do not only view cases from a criminal-law perspective. Take, for example, online marketplace fraud. Victims do not want to go to court, they simply want compensation. This is where banks should step in. Victims should be able to file a report with their bank. The bank could then compensate their loss and, at the same time, block the suspect’s account. Although it’s obvious that a criminal offence was committed, there is a party other than the police that is in a better position to solve the problem. That integral approach is at the heart of the bachelor’s programme.’

Attracting new people with new skills

Traditionally, a criminal investigator’s job involved finding, arresting, and prosecuting criminals. Kowalczyk: ‘We used to select criminal investigators who excelled at this type of work. We have now realised that, due to the changes in the field, someone who applies for a job as a criminal investigator needs other skills as well. This means that we will also have to attract people with other competences, who are interested in big data, for instance, or have strong analytical skills.’ 

This bachelor’s programme will help make the criminal investigation department more accessible, because it now allows students to start working as a criminal investigator right from the start of their career. Kowalczyk: ‘This will make the police a more interesting employer for people from outside the organisation, which is exactly what we need now the labour market is so tight.’

End result

Feenstra and Kowalczyk are convinced that their work resulted in a strong programme, both in terms of contents and in terms of didactics. ‘This bachelor’s programme is great. It is incredibly important for high-quality criminal investigation’ according to Kowalczyk. This sentiment is shared by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatieorganisatie; NVAO). This organisation safeguards the quality of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders, and recently gave its official approval to the programme.

Feenstra: ‘We’re proud that the programme is practice-based: students spend half of their time actually on the job, while their coursework is based on cases taken directly from investigation practice. In addition, we are proud of the fact that the programme enables us to respond quickly to new developments emerging in that practice, for example in the field of data-driven investigations.’ Another plus: students have a great deal of control. For example, students are allowed to choose a topic within a module for their exams. They can also decide on the form of their examination, which could be a vlog, a presentation, a paper, or an infographic.