The Best Detectives On Law & Order: SVU Ranked By Skill

Being an SVU detective is a tough gig. As described in the opening narration of the long-running spin-off "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," the crimes they investigate are considered "especially heinous," often dealing in sexual violence. Week in and week out for over 20 years now, the unit has been confronted with some of the worst acts that a human can commit against another person: Rape and incest, murder, sex trafficking, and more. Some episodes are "ripped from the headlines," while others are tales as old as time.

The constant stream of misery, often perpetrated against society's most vulnerable and marginalized, wears on the detectives who choose this line of work. Where the original "Law & Order" series adopted a "just the facts" approach to its police drama, focusing on the case of the week above all, "SVU" delves into the personal lives of its detectives. Many of them have traumas in their backgrounds that drew them to SVU, only to find that those traumas make living with the work difficult. Nearly all of them are good cops, but the mark of a great SVU detective is being able to do the job without succumbing to despair or one's darker impulses. Let's take a look at the best "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" detectives, ranked by skill.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Adam Beach's Chester Lake joined the SVU squad in Season 9, partnering with Fin Tutuola (Ice-T) after the promotion of Fin's former partner John Munch (Richard Belzer). A native New Yorker of Mohawk ancestry, Lake's keen powers of observation and handiness with his fists (he's a former MMA fighter) made him a valuable asset to the 16th precinct. However, being an asset to the SVU isn't just about being a good detective, it's about being able to weather the darkness at the heart of each case and, when necessary, accepting that some cases will not see justice served. This is where Lake falls flat.

This inability caused Lake's downfall in the Season 9 finale "Cold," where it's revealed that Lake is a member of the Vidocq society, a real-life organization of investigators who work on cold cases. While independently investigating a decade-old assault case — the first of his police career — he kills two NYPD cops who were involved: One in the course of protecting the sole remaining witness to the crime, the other after justice in the case once again goes unserved. Like many other detectives on this list, Lake's zeal overtook his consideration of the law, and he suffered for it.

Going undercover is dangerous, but it's all in a day's work for an SVU detective. Whether it's Kat Tamin posing as a jogger in the park, Benson joining a terrorist cell, or Stabler moving into a halfway house for convicted sex offenders, the pressures of leading a double life can send a cop down some dark roads. That was the case for Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), the former undercover narcotics officer who became Benson's new partner following Stabler's departure. In his previous assignment Amaro went deep undercover and became sexually involved with Cynthia Mancheno (Andrea Navedo), the sister of the high-level drug dealer he was pursuing. Their relationship resulted in a child, Gilberto, who Amaro only found out about years later while working with SVU.

While you could argue that the high-stakes nature of his undercover assignment was to blame, Amaro's relationship with Cynthia was not exactly ethical. He also has a habit of threatening people with violence, particularly when it comes to child abuse. Like Stabler, Amaro has little sympathy for those who prey on women and children, but, unlike Stabler, he was censured for his actions numerous times. Finally, after being wounded on the job at the end of Season 16, he decides that he needs a fresh start away from SVU and retires to California, where Cynthia, Gilberto, and his daughter from a previous marriage all live.

Mexican-born Jose "Joe" Velasco (Octavio Pisano) is the newest member of the SVU team, taking over for the retired Kat Tamin in Season 23. Partnered with Fin, he seems to be built from the spare parts of previous detectives. Like Rollins, he is a transplant to New York, having grown up on the tough streets of Ciudad Juárez; like Amaro, his childhood was marked by abuse and neglect; like Stabler, he has a violent streak that puts him at odds with veterans Benson and Fin. And, like Cassidy, he is inexperienced and surprisingly naïve.

The Season 23 episode "Confess Your Sins to Be Free" takes a hard look at Velasco's naivety, especially when it comes to his Catholic faith. He is no stranger to the dark side of humanity, having witnessed firsthand sex trafficking in his hometown, but when the evidence points to a priest (Kelly AuCoin) being a serial rapist, he has difficulty reconciling his faith with his job. Like devout SVU detectives Amaro and Stabler before him, Velasco must confront his own biases and recognize that predators can be lurking anywhere, especially in places where they can hold power over the vulnerable.

Real life events brought a lot of changes to Season 21 and Season 22 of "SVU." There was the birth of the #MeToo era (signified by Ian McShane guest-starring as a Harvey Weinstein surrogate), the COVID-19 pandemic, and the nationwide reckoning on police violence brought on by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. The world had transformed in a relatively short space of time, and "SVU" had to change with it. At the center of these wild two years was a brand new character, young detective Katriona "Kat" Tamin, first introduced as part of the sting operation that takes down McShane's predatory film producer. A few episodes later, Kat was a full-fledged SVU member.

In her short time on the show, the earnest and insightful Kat worked alongside Rollins and was often placed at the forefront of episodes that specifically dealt with public distrust of the police. The show has had many Stabler surrogates over the years, from Amaro to Rollins and Velasco, but Kat was a rare surrogate for Benson, a truly caring and decent cop who seemed born for the work. But Kat managed to do something Benson never could, or perhaps never would: She gets out. The early Season 23 episode "Never Turn Your Back on Them" has Kat barely survive a gunshot wound in the line of duty, and the experience leads her to, quite understandably, leave the NYPD in search of a new calling. It's perhaps the healthiest choice that any "SVU" detective has ever made.

There are detectives who are great because they possess some special insight (as seen on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"), and there are detectives who are great because they put in the work day after day and year after year. Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, played by rapper-turned-actor Ice-T, is a sterling example of the latter. Fin joined the SVU at the start of Season 2, replacing Monique Jeffries as John Munch's partner. Together for years, Fin and Munch were the perfect B-team to Benson and Stabler, streetwise and sarcastic, and handy with a one-liner. After Richard Belzer left the show Fin became a mentor of sorts to the next generation of detectives, showing Rollins, Kat, and Velasco the SVU ropes.

Besides Benson, Fin is the most tenured SVU detective, but we know relatively little about his life outside of the squad room. Episodes have told his story in dribs and drabs, from his time as an Army ranger in the early 1990s to his years spent in Narcotics before transferring to SVU. We've seen him reconnect with his estranged son Ken and become a grandfather, and most recently he found love with his old Narcotics colleague Phoebe Baker (Jennifer Esposito). For the most part, though, Fin's world is the squad room. He's always there, always on the case, and here's hoping he always will be, because he's great at his job.

Munch may be the quintessential "SVU" detective, but Olivia Benson is its heart and soul. From the first episode to presumably the last, whenever that might be, Benson has anchored the show. Even when partnered with Stabler, who was arguably the series lead, she was irreplaceable; just ask Connie Nielsen, who "replaced" Benson as a new character for several Season 8 episodes while Mariska Hargitay was on maternity leave. It's a move that continues to draw "SVU" fans' ire more than a decade later. Benson and Stabler were a crime-fighting duo for the ages, and their love for each other — whether platonic or professional or something more — anchored the first half of the series run.

After Meloni left the show, however, both Benson and Hargitay took center stage. Hargitay received a well-earned "starring" place in the opening credits in Season 13 and got a producer credit in Season 16, followed by an executive producer credit in Season 18. On the screen, Benson adopted a son and eventually became the head of the unit. While not on the streets quite so often, Benson's qualities — her empathy, her determination, and her compassion toward victims — became the qualities of not just the squad, but of the show itself. The return of Stabler in Season 22 only emphasized how much Benson has grown and changed since she was his junior partner, and how much the series has in turn.