After 26 years, Suffolk Police Detective John Jones will be turning in his badge next week.

The detective, who has specialized in white-collar crime for the last three years, says he is ready to get a job with normal hours and not spend all his free time testifying in court. He will retire from the Suffolk Police Department on May 31.

“My intention is to go back to work full-time,” he said. “I feel like I’m too young to retire.”

Jones came to the police department after a stint at the shipyard as a machinist on submarines. He was in uniform patrol for 14 years before moving to the detective division 12 years ago.

For nine years, he investigated any and all types of crime. About three years ago, though, he began to specialize in white-collar and financial crimes such as identity theft, fraud, embezzlement and the like.

They require an entirely different skill set from investigating other types of crimes, he said.

“You have to have a passion for these types of cases,” he said. “You’re at the mercy of a lot of other people — businesses, banks, credit card companies. And you have to like working with numbers.”

Despite his passion for financial crimes, the most rewarding moment of his career came when he made an arrest in a murder case eight years after the crime occurred.

In November 2001, the skeletal remains of Germaine Jones were found in a wooded portion of Bennett’s Creek Park. She had disappeared in May of that year.

The original investigation went cold, but Detective Jones was assigned to the case in 2003. He worked on it off and on for about six years until he was able to get an indictment in 2009.

Gerard Dunston, Jones’ boyfriend at the time of her murder, was arrested in August 2009 and eventually pleaded guilty to the crime.

“That case meant a lot to me,” Detective Jones said, saying the key to solving it involved several layers of circumstantial evidence. “That case described who I am.”

Jones said he hopes to put his financial expertise to work in retirement, possibly at a bank. He also has plenty of leadership experience after retiring from the National Guard as a first sergeant about four years ago.

He also will spend more time with his family, a wife and an 11-year-old son, and more time in his duties as president of the Suffolk Ruritan Club and helping with his son’s Boy Scout troop.

“It’s a lot to do,” he said. “I’m very excited about it.”