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

a matter of concern that the many examples given in the groups provide convincing
testimony of how specialist teams are struggling to manage with the resources they
have been given.
Fitzgerald et al similarly found evidence of work overload in specialist squads:
‘Ironically – as subsequent focus groups with staff from central units
within the MPS brought out – the specialist units themselves often
felt similarly stretched and overloaded. And one senior manager
reported that his officers were having to deal with cases that should
properly have been handled as major incidents but the AMIT had
no capacity to deal with them.’ (Fitzgerald et al, op cit: 119).
The following comment provides an example of an exception and a neat illustration
of the way the groups weighed the balance.
We’ve provided a DC to the Trials Unit which does court file
preparation and we would say that we get a positive return on that,
you know, because there’s not so many files coming back. So we
wouldn’t argue with the Trials Unit abstraction. We have also had to
supply two DCs to the Investigative Support Unit – set up to track
files and to give advice to officers on investigation. They produce
interview plans, action plans and so on. We would say the CID were
twirled on that one. It’s a job the uniform sergeants should be doing.
So we’re down two officers there, doing some-one else’s job.
The detective who made the following contribution was convinced the GO CID had
suffered a major loss as a result of a recent abstraction and had no regrets about
making his views known to senior officers.
I lost two people on my team, which at the moment is 25% of my
strength, to supply two DCs to the new Tasking Demand
Management Unit – basically the new call centre and you know it
frustrates us greatly that in a time when we’re struggling for
resources we’re giving away two experienced detectives to a unit
like that. At the senior officers’ meeting it was stated that this new
unit would reduce the calls uniformed officers need to attend by
50% so I suggested that the equivalent number of officers should
come in [to GO CID]. The bosses didn’t like it and I got drawn over
the coals for saying it. But it had to be said.
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