LOSING THE DETECTIVES: VIEWS FROM THE ... - Police Federation

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• the complexity of a crime and the depth of the enquiry does not dictate that an MIT will deal with it. If the victim of an assault dies of their injuries, for example, in many cases an MIT will undertake the investigation. Yet, should the victim survive, irrespective of the complexity of the incident and the depth of enquiry it necessitates, GO CID will conduct the investigation, with a fraction of the detectives the MIT has at its disposal and; • specialist squads are under-resourced and cannot cope with the volume of work they have generated. This means they are unable to respond to demands for assistance from GO CID which is left to investigate crimes its members consider to fall within the remit of a specialist unit. The general consensus in the groups was that, on balance, the cost to the GO CID teams of the abstractions and transfers to MITs and other specialist units at force and BCU level represents a net loss. The ricochet effects of the under-resourcing of the 24/7 response teams The focus groups claimed the following factors were responsible for increases in their workload. Each is symptomatic of the under-resourcing of 24/7 response policing: • poor quality handover packages, resulting from the deskilling of uniformed officers, lack of ownership of cases and loss of interest in outcomes; • the loss of investigatory opportunities because the initial response to incidents and actions taken at the scene fails to secure evidence and sometimes contaminates it; •&the lack of supervisory involvement and support in front-line response policing; and • uniformed managers reducing the workload of their 24/7 response teams by defining certain incidents as serious crimes and insisting that, as such, they fall within the remit of CID. Organisational priorities and their effects on GO CID The consideration of organisational priorities expands the discussion of resilience beyond the issue of numbers and workloads to examine the factors which are responsible for alienating detectives in GO CID. The priorities discussed in this chapter are a direct consequence of the adoption of New Public Management policies in the police service. The groups considered senior police management to be primarily concerned with: •&providing an expeditious, blame-free response to critical incidents which could put the BCU in the spotlight of publicity; and (ix)
•&the achievement of sanction detection targets. The concern of SMTs with ensuring that critical incidents are dealt with appropriately, as exemplified by the imperative of the ‘golden hour’ response to active crimes, imposes further workload pressures on the skeleton GO CID teams. Servicing these incidents is recognised to be important best practice, but the detectives object to the same individuals being required to work the excessive hours involved and having to abandon other important work because there is no one else available to respond. The concern of SMTs with meeting sanction detection targets results in a concentration of police resources on ‘high yield’ crimes and ‘quick win’ sanctions and in ‘housekeeping’ practices which are becoming more dubious as targets are stretched to unreasonable lengths. Despite their emphasis on ethical policing senior officers are accused of hypocritically turning a ‘blind eye’ to these practices. The under-valued criminal investigation work of GO CID and senior management’s reported lack of CID experience While detectives see resources being poured into the production of what are perceived to be spurious sanction detection rates, they struggle to find the time to investigate the more serious crimes on their case-loads. They find senior management’s low prioritisation of post-charge work particularly galling given that the quality and timeliness of the evidence they obtain will help to determine whether or not a case is subsequently discontinued or the prosecution successful. Convictions are considered not to be of concern to senior management because, unlike sanction detections, they are not counted as a measure of police effectiveness under the current performance assessment regime. By the same token, the work of the quick-win squads is considered to be more highly valued than theirs. GO CID cannot compete with these squads because the type of offences they investigate require more time and resources yet produce a lower yield of sanction detections. The failure of senior management to resource GO CID adequately is attributed to their lack of experience of the criminal investigation process as well as their fixation with targets. Unable to identify with the current priorities of their organisation, frustrated at the manner in which sanction detection rates are created and used to create the illusion of success in tackling crime and the undervaluing of skilled investigative effort leads detectives to feel marginalised and disillusioned. Consequences of the under-resourcing of GO CID for individual detectives Having to work extended hours on a case until ‘everything that has to be done and can be done, has been done’ has been an accepted norm with the CID for decades. Members of the GO CID now find, however, that it is frequently impossible to perform the more routine CID business without having to work extra hours. The focus groups constantly referred to the requirements of the PACE clock and the time (x)
Page 1 and 2: LOSING THE DETECTIVES: VIEWS FROM T
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements Without the cooper
Page 5 and 6: We look for a considered response t
Page 7 and 8: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background to the
Page 9: Explaining the deficit - where the
Page 13 and 14: Discussion The focus groups placed
Page 15 and 16: CHAPTER 1 Introduction Background t
Page 17 and 18: to do’ bracket because the invest
Page 19 and 20: The forces selected to be represent
Page 21 and 22: The depletion of GO CID CHAPTER 2 T
Page 23 and 24: The replacements Alarming as the fi
Page 25 and 26: Group members and particularly supe
Page 27 and 28: esponse policing because of the eve
Page 29 and 30: We’ve had two staff permanently o
Page 31 and 32: instances, to manage and supervise,
Page 33 and 34: dissolved and the total number of d
Page 35 and 36: Our research on 24/7 officers four
Page 37 and 38: Although forces have MITs potential
Page 39 and 40: [Detective 2] They will always have
Page 41 and 42: up coming back [to the GO CID] for
Page 43 and 44: CHAPTER 5 The workload of GO CID an
Page 45 and 46: •&the lack of supervisory involve
Page 47 and 48: If the sergeant on the shift has sp
Page 49 and 50: provide the required level of stree
Page 51 and 52: The management of critical incident
Page 53 and 54: Although Innes is drawing upon his
Page 55 and 56: prosecution and conviction of crimi
Page 57 and 58: wounding; •&robberies; and •&ca
Page 59 and 60: school-related offences where, for
Page 61 and 62:
Detective inspectors who carry resp
Page 63 and 64:
The range of housekeeping activitie
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At best many investigations will no
Page 67 and 68:
prosecutions brought and the convic
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They won’t charge without a full
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obtained a TIC in their lives. They
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offence which merits the degree of
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solicitors, you’re waiting around
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minority and management can still d
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ecome disenchanted with the way the
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CHAPTER 9 Consequences of the under
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• not following up on leads - 'wi
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He’s done all he can physically d
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to minor offences which detectives
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standard in Crown Court and its exe
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They’re the ones who need to be t
Page 93 and 94:
We are losing sources because they
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identified the gap that exists betw
Page 97 and 98:
New Public Management and the polic
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consequently attenuated. This estra
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The challenge for senior police man
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2. CID Structure Under the MEP pilo
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justify its selection. Detection ra
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carry out investigations effectivel
Page 109 and 110:
Team differences The team differenc
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To overcome these problems crimes a
Page 113 and 114:
for a punch-up’ and you then had
Page 115 and 116:
as its innovatory feature. The eigh
Page 117 and 118:
In Waverley elements of this ‘res
Page 119:
Irvine, B. and Dunningham, C. (1993
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LOSING THE DETECTIVES: VIEWS FROM THE ... - Police Federation

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