Talk: Detective

Miles O'Brien had a fondness for detective novels as well, which he later gave to Odo, but I do not recall which episode established these facts. --From Andoria with Love 08:52, 11 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Merge[]

I would suggest merging this with Detective, which already covers P.I.'s and could cover the other synonyms.--31dot 20:25, March 13, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, that can work, sorry for not checking for that first, it slipped my mind to. My only (and probably one and only) argument against this, would be that a private investigator is a very specific occupation, with "detective" often referring to someone employed by a law enforcement agency. At least that's how I often see it, but whatever works for the community. --Terran Officer 20:42, March 13, 2011 (UTC)

::Oppose: They are two different, albeit similar, occupations. The Private investigator does not work for a local authority - rather he is hired - whereas a detective usually does. For what it's worth, the two are also separated on wikipedia. --| TrekFan ^{Open a channel} 21:56, March 13, 2011 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia a detective is "A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators..." They are also on the same page at Wikidictionary. I believe the only difference here is who the employer is- a government/police agency or a private entity. They do the same thing regardless, unless I'm missing something else.--31dot 08:48, March 14, 2011 (UTC)

We have also merged articles on similar subjects but with different names together, as in Log buoy.--31dot 09:20, March 14, 2011 (UTC)

Was Dixon Hill actually called a Detective? Never mind, he was, so I support a merge. - Archduk3 09:59, March 14, 2011 (UTC)

I support a merge, for I think it would enhance the Detective article. As it is, no distinction between a formal, police-detective and an informal, PI exists: it places Sherlock Holmes (most definitely not affiliated with any police – he did it for amusement and to otherwise avoid cocaine and his various other hobbies – accepted payment, occasionally used illegal methods, and had a sort of adversarial relationship with many at Scotland Yard.) in the same category as Constable Odo or agents Lucsly and Dulmer.

I think the fine info about PIs here should be folded into the detective article to make the latter more accurate and complete (eg, sections); let PIs be a section – they are a subset of detectives. (And we also wouldn't want every synonym given by Data in "Encounter at Farpoint" its own article, though many of them could have (sub)sections at Detective.) Sorry to go off on a YA sporadic, loquacious, tangent (my bane to others here, sorry!), this time wrt Sherlock Holmes; I was only using him as an example for how the PI info could enhance the detective article (not suggesting we include that much detail about him outside his own article!)

Just my $0.02/£0.02/€0.02/¥0.02. — Cepstrum ^(talk) 03:02, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

After reading Cepstrum's comments, I would support a merge of this article as a subsection of Detective. --| TrekFan ^{Open a channel} 03:19, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

I've merged the pages. I didn't really add much since the original private investigator page basically said what was here already, but feel free to create a subsection or other idea.--31dot 03:31, March 26, 2011 (UTC)