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

constable, sergeant and inspector ranks. When there were insufficient numbers of
GO CID detectives available colleagues who had recently moved from these teams
into specialist squads were included or, in the case of detective inspectors, one-toone
interviews were conducted instead of focus groups, normally in the workplace. In
Surrey three days were spent observing processes in the CID office from which the
six MEP teams work and nine interviews were held with people occupying different
roles within these teams.
Every group was facilitated by the writer and the sessions were taped. Most groups
were also attended by a note-taker to record the issues raised and to capture the
main points of the discussion. Each transcript was analysed in depth to identify
recurring themes and issues and references to relevant quotations were placed into
these repeated categories. This generated an abundance of rich quotations. A
conscious attempt was made to ensure that quotations regularly appeared from each
force in the study.
The depletion of GO CID
The huge loss of skilled, experienced and knowledgeable detectives suffered by the
GO CID teams, the vacancies their departure has created, and the related problems
of recruitment and retention provide the most immediately obvious explanation for
the seriously impaired resilience of GO CID teams. The reductions in the size of GO
CID teams in all the forces visited are alarming. They raise important questions
about the quality of service detectives remaining in these Offices are able to provide
to victims and witnesses. They also raise equally important issues concerning the
welfare of those detectives: the exhausting workloads and the long hours they are
required to work on a regular basis are resented and they worry about the mistakes
that occur as a result.
CID Offices are typically now operating with between a half and a third of their
establishment of detectives. Forces do not always reveal the true extent of this skill
and knowledge deficit because for statistical purposes they include trainee detective
constables (TDCs) and uniformed constables on attachment to GO CID in the same
category as trained detectives.
Despite their trainee status, TDCs are not treated as such. Despite their lack
experience they carry a full crime workload. It is not uncommon for TDCs to provide
night cover on their BCUs and on these occasions they are not always accompanied
by an experienced detective. If they are fortunate enough to have a mentor the
amount of support they receive is still limited because of the size of the mentor’s own
crime load.
Posts remain vacant because there are serious recruitment problems. Trained
detectives are unwilling to leave specialist squads for the pressured environment of
GO CID. A TDC posting is unattractive to many uniformed patrol constables because
of the perceived reduction in the status of the CID and the adverse effects of a CID
posting on work/life balance. Further, the deskilling of uniform patrol constables has
made the step up to criminal investigation work a daunting prospect.
(vii)