Effective Detective

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONSinvestigations, as well as overall organisational efficiency and integrity. Appropriateprocesses need to be developed to ensure ‘effective’ SIOs are in place for the future.To tackle this, the following recommendations need to be embraced:●●●●●●●the role of training, continuous professional development coupled withappropriate experience was shown to be key to the development of an ‘effective’SIO. It will therefore be necessary to co-ordinate training and experience withinthe career progression of an SIO;forces should develop and implement formal systems for early identification ofpotential SIOs and their subsequent career development. This would need to besupported by research to establish how and at what point someone with thepotential to be an SIO is best identified;senior officers should provide future SIOs with the relevant opportunities toensure that gaps in their skill portfolio are addressed by appropriate experience;all forces should implement a formal mentoring system early in the career of apotential future SIO;forces should establish formal de-briefing programmes for SIOs. These need to beconducted in a risk-free environment where constructive lessons can be learnt.These should be documented and disseminated through the NCF;ACPO (Homicide Working Group) are approving standards of competence inCrime Reduction and Investigation. The findings of this research should becomplementary to the development of the core competences required for SIOs;and,the National Crime Faculty (NCF) should incorporate the research findingswithin the National SIO Development Programme and disseminate themthrough its Training and Development Section, with particular emphasis givento developing the management skills associated with an investigation of seriouscrime.58