Effective Detective

COMBINATION OF SKILLS3. Combination of skillsOpinion is largely divided as to what combination of skills is required to investigatea serious crime effectively. At its simplest level this has been polarised into a debatebetween ‘specialist’ and ‘generalist’ skills. One perspective is that an ‘effective’ SIOrequires specialist subject knowledge and investigative experience built up througha career largely within CID (the ‘specialist’ approach). The alternative viewpointplaces more emphasis on general management skills, which can be obtainedthrough various roles across the police force (the ‘generalist’ approach).Our research, however, revealed a much more complex picture. The 22 skillcategories generated from the interviews were organised into three clusters:●●●management skills;investigative ability; and,knowledge levels.Management skillsAll interviewees identified management skills as a significant requirement for‘effective’ SIOs. However when applied to senior investigators, the term‘management skills’ is far too broad to be meaningful. Under the general heading ofmanagement skills, it was possible to distinguish a number of areas of management.By analysing references in the interviews to particular management skills, we havemade distinctions between ‘people management’, ‘general management’ and‘investigative management’ skills. Figure 3 illustrates the three management clusterswith the skills associated with each of them.People managementThere are two main components to people management: the ability to manage thepersonnel directly involved in a serious crime enquiry (the investigative team); andthe ability to engage in fruitful relationships external to the investigation. Thelatter includes dealing with witnesses, victims, specialist advisers, the media andmembers of the legal profession. Four discrete skill areas were identified under theheading of people management: team-building; staff support; staff development andinterpersonal skills.General managementWe have classified the second area of management as ‘general management’. Thereis a high concentration of routine management skills contained within this area ofgeneral management. Because they are routine, the skills required are easilyreplicable to fit any given management role. They included: leadership; managing24