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

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There’s absolutely no way, with the staffing levels we’ve got, that we can carry them. I mean you get two come into the office [as replacements] and I’ve known it to be more than that. There’s no way we can carry two people for three, four, five months before they have their course and them not have any crimes. We just can’t do it. We don’t have the staffing levels to do it. Now when someone walks through the door of our office they’ve got a full desk [of crimes], simple as that. It is not uncommon for TDCs to provide night cover on their BCU and on these occasions they are not always accompanied by an experienced detective. So I went from [24/7 uniform] response on 1st July to TDC. On 10 th July, I was the only detective on duty on nights covering the whole BCU. Forces were accused of ignoring the gaps in the knowledge and skills of TDCs which can be extensive. We've got two TDCs in the BCU who have never done probation as a police officer as you know it. They did their street duties and came straight on attachment to the CID. It can be a considerable way into the training period before those skills gaps begin to close and trainees can spend several months in the CID Office before they even start their formal training. They say they’re not supposed to have their own crimes until after they’ve done the six week course. Yet they can be waiting up to five months for their course. Some hope! Also overlooked when TDCs are included in the establishment of the GO CID teams is the fact that, once their courses commence, they are then taken away for weeks at a time which further reduces their contribution to the work of the team. The prevailing view in the groups was that it would be fairer all round to count TDCs as a liability not a resource. Group members considered this to be consistent with their trainee status and they were critical of forces for failing to recognise this fact and for not taking into account the extra work TDCs generated for other members of the GO teams; particularly first line supervisors. Supervisors have to remain vigilant and closely scrutinise the work of trainees because of the understandably greater potential for mistakes. This has been exacerbated by the problem of recruitment (see this chapter below) which has meant that officers are now being admitted into the CID before they are ready. No it is wrong. When someone comes in they’ve possibly investigated a few robberies then they’re thrown right in the deep end. On their duty week they could pick up a rape, a Section 18, a serious fraud so from Day 1 they’re involved. They get completely bogged down with it. 10
Group members and particularly supervisors were critical of the practice of including the number of uniformed officers on attachment to the CID in the total figure of detectives in order to hide the skill and experience deficit in Office CID. This practice exasperated respondents because, as they pointed out, these officers are not even training to be detectives. The unit I’ve just come from was supposed to be staffed with nine detectives and the same number of attachments. Routinely I had four detectives, two of which were on a CID course and three uniformed attachments. So your uniform attachments would be your investigators. They didn’t get to work alongside the detectives as intended. They were all you had and they generally had to deal with it as it came through the door. An additional problem for CID supervisors in some areas arises from the fact that these uniformed officers on attachment may be counted as part of the CID but their uniformed supervisors still have first call on their services and consequently, whenever additional officers are needed to police special events, they are pulled back to their sections. Although all the PCs that come in are shown as under the CID portfolio the uniformed portfolio still have sort of leverage over them. So you find instead of four you’ve only got two because two of them have been pulled back into uniform to police a football match or something. It happens all the time in our area with the PCs who are brought into the CID. It’s an absolute pain when you are short-staffed already and suddenly your officers are put back in uniform to cover an event. Recruitment problems The problem of recruiting into the CID and its consequences for selection was raised as a major issue in a large majority of the forces visited. In many areas posts remain unfilled because it has not been possible to attract officers in other roles to apply for them. You advertise these jobs. I’ve got a DS’s vacancy at L town. Today is the closing date, five o’clock this afternoon and when I left to come here there had still been no applicants. We’ve already advertised one of the DC's vacancies four or five months ago but nobody applied for it. There are no qualified DCs to spare. Advertisements for posts have been followed up by personal approaches to officers who are considered to have the aptitude and ability for CID work. This has generally failed to secure an application. I was asked to put somebody’s name forward from uniform who I thought would make a good detective. They approached him to see 11
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 and 10: Explaining the deficit - where the
Page 11 and 12: •&the achievement of sanction det
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: The replacements Alarming as the fi
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
Page 65 and 66: At best many investigations will no
Page 67 and 68: prosecutions brought and the convic
Page 69 and 70: They won’t charge without a full
Page 71 and 72: obtained a TIC in their lives. They
Page 73 and 74: offence which merits the degree of
Page 75 and 76:
solicitors, you’re waiting around
Page 77 and 78:
minority and management can still d
Page 79 and 80:
ecome disenchanted with the way the
Page 81 and 82:
CHAPTER 9 Consequences of the under
Page 83 and 84:
• not following up on leads - 'wi
Page 85 and 86:
He’s done all he can physically d
Page 87 and 88:
to minor offences which detectives
Page 89 and 90:
standard in Crown Court and its exe
Page 91 and 92:
They’re the ones who need to be t
Page 93 and 94:
We are losing sources because they
Page 95 and 96:
identified the gap that exists betw
Page 97 and 98:
New Public Management and the polic
Page 99 and 100:
consequently attenuated. This estra
Page 101 and 102:
The challenge for senior police man
Page 103 and 104:
2. CID Structure Under the MEP pilo
Page 105 and 106:
justify its selection. Detection ra
Page 107 and 108:
carry out investigations effectivel
Page 109 and 110:
Team differences The team differenc
Page 111 and 112:
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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