Many police departments require detectives seeking higher positions to spend significant time working in the internal affairs branch. These officers not only gain extensive knowledge of spotting police wrongdoing, but they also gain familiarity with the situations and mindsets from which such conduct may result. Being assigned to internal affairs lessens the chance that a commanding officer may be too forgiving when looking into or punishing a colleague. In addition to separating a detective from their precinct and decreasing the possibility of cronyism, the transfer to internal affairs also gives the detective experience working as a supervisor. The sentence that most convincingly demonstrates the idea that detectives are reassigned to internal affairs primarily to
