About Detective Estes

Roger Estes has lived in the DC Metropolitan area for most of his life. His father’s influence and expertise in firearms resulted in Roger beginning to shoot rifles at a young age and eventually shooting on the Washington-Lee High School rifle team in Arlington, VA. During that timeframe, he won many awards and honors including selection for the Virginia State High School Rifle Team.

Roger attended Murray State University in Murray, Ky. and joined the rifle team there. In 1968 he was part of the MSU Collegiate National Championship Rifle Team. Roger was selected as College All-American in rifle in the school years of 1968, 1969 and 1973. He competed in the Final Tryouts for the US Olympics Rifle Team for Smallbore Position, Prone, and International Rifle (300 meters) in 1964 and 1968. Roger has held 27 National Records for Smallbore Position and Prone as well as for 300 meter. Roger studied Education and Criminal Justice at MSU.

Roger was hired by the Arlington County Police Department in1973 as a Patrol Officer. He attended the 22nd Session of the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy, in Fairfax, Virginia. Between 1973 and 1988 he served as a uniformed officer and his duties included community patrol, plain clothes operative in the ACPD Tactical Unit and crime scene investigator as a Police Agent. He was one of the first foot patrol officers in Arlington in 1975. He served in the Follow-up Unit in 1984, as a temporary detective, and later transferred to the Crime Resistance Unit in 1986-1988.
Detective Estes was selected as a sniper on the ACPD Special Weapons Team (SWAT) when it was first formed in 1977 until 1989. He later served as a SWAT trainer. He has been a police firearms instructor since 1980 as well as a Virginia State certified general instructor since 1997.
From 1976 – 1986, Detective Estes trained the Arlington County Auxiliary Police in certain skills of uniform officers. These included defensive tactics, disarming tactics, pat-down and body arrest searches.
In 1988 Roger was promoted to Detective and transferred to the ACPD Major Crimes Division. He was assigned to the Burglary Unit to investigate residential burglaries. Roger returned to uniform duty in 1995 and remained until 1999 when he was transferred to the Criminal Investigations Division as a Detective in the Auto Theft Unit. In 2000, Detective Estes was promoted to Master Police Office (MPO) and returned to the Burglary Unit. He investigated both commercial and residential burglaries as well as other crimes related to burglary crime such as theft of property and identity theft. Roger remained in the Burglary Unit until retirement in 2010 with 37 years of service.
During his tenure as a Burglary Detective, Roger investigated more than 2300 felony cases and made over 500 arrests which is the career record in ACPD. Additionally, he also wrote and executed more than 500 search warrants.
In 2003, Detective Estes’ expertise in interviewing was recognized when he was requested to design and teach a class for uniform officers in utilizing extensive interviewing techniques. He developed “The 30 Minute Interview™”. Detective Estes prepared the classroom materials and reference guides, which included a published workbook named for the class. This course includes among the graduates every ACPD uniformed officer. In 2006 Detective Estes began teaching the class at the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy in Loudon County, VA and has taught approximately 900 officers this class to date.

Upon his return to the investigations division in 1999, Detective Estes was requested to mentor new detectives in certain investigation skills. These skills included writing and execution of search warrants, interviewing, and other detective investigative techniques. Also at that time, Detective Estes was requested to teach about burglary crime prevention and burglary investigation to the Citizen Police Academy and Teen Police Academy.
Detective Estes is recognized in the Northern Virginia area for his expertise in burglary investigation and all of the techniques and knowledge of this type of investigation.
In 2006 Detective Estes finally completed his course work and graduated from Murray State University with a BA in Independent Study with a concentration in Criminal Justice. He was honored for his GPA by the Independent Studies Program at MSU at graduation.
Mrs. Estes has patiently been married to Roger for 33 years. They have two sons and a daughter. He is active in the Boy Scouts, having served as a Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Merit Badge Counselor and Committee Member of Arlington Troop 624. The Estes’ sons are both Eagle Scouts. Detective Estes’ interests include teaching, competing in rifle and pistol shooting, camping, photography and writing.
Detective Estes wrote and published a booklet for those interested in obtaining a concealed weapons permit. Named, “You, Guns, and the New Law”. The book was published in 1995. A reprint will soon be forthcoming.
Roger continued to compete in rifle and pistol after college and to the present. In 1980, he won the Virginia State Championship in Handgun Silhouette. In 1992, he competed in Long Range Rifle in the first Law Enforcement Olympics (now named the Police & Fire Games). During that tournament Roger won First place at 800 yards, Second at 900 yards, and Third at 1000 yards. The U.S. Team he was on also won First Place. Currently Detective Estes shoots in Smallbore and High Power Rifle Silhouette competition, as well as Bowling Pin Pistol competitions.
Since 2007, Detective Estes has taught handgun competency classes to citizens that wanted to obtain a Virginia Concealed Handgun Permit.
Since 2008, Detective Estes has been a guest speaker at Westwood College in Arlington, Marymount University in Arlington, and the Harrisburg Area Community College. The subjects included search & seizure aspects of police work, interviewing, and evidence most useful in court.
The Police Education Institute began life in 2007 as a non-profit organization. Mr. Harold Knight. the organization’s Vice President of Operations, assisted in beginning the non-profit as well as suggesting the path the organization should take to undertake the overall stated purpose. This purpose is to bring police and citizens together, through various education techniques, to eliminate crime. This purpose may seem to some, to be too difficult to succeed. In Detective Estes’ mind, this purpose should be extended to include further training of police officers and citizens to coordinate with each other in the elimination of all crime. By training police officers to be as extremely competent in interviewing and investigation, cases can be brought to the prosecution that have better chances of a successful conclusion. By training law abiding citizens in crime prevention and self defense, many crimes can be prevented or the citizen can protect his or herself even if the crime is actually perpetrated.
It has always been Detective Estes’ purpose as a police officer and detective, to be impartial in the enforcement of law, and to make sure that all of the correct criminal suspects are charged for all the crimes they committed. A lot of this is done through quality interviewing techniques and thorough knowledge of the Criminal Code of Virginia as well as search and seizure decisions from the highest courts. Through this knowledge, skills, and future classes to officers and citizens, Detective Estes believes the purpose of the Police Education Institute can be reached.