Essex Detectives remain 'overworked and under compensated'

28 March 2018

Essex Detectives are ‘overworked and ‘under compensated’ for what they do, says Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor.

The Police Federation of England and Wales says cuts and workload are partly to blame, while nearly three quarters of respondents told last year’s national detective survey that they felt unable to provide the service victims need.

And now the PFEW has launched a new campaign aimed at raising awareness of the pressures detectives are facing.

Steve said:  “Things are far from great but, and I have to rely on my detective colleagues in the county for their advice in this area, things aren’t as bad as they were last year.

“It’s clear though that they are overworked and under compensated for what they do. It needs our attention, we need to support them and to ensure we get new recruits through the door.”

A local change in shift patterns has had a beneficial impact he said.

“We’ve made some local tweaks to force-wide working patterns and the amount of on-call work is being shared around fairly has been a positive step.

“There might be a case too for priority type bonuses, prioritising officers who choose to become Detectives the same way we do for those becoming firearm officers.

“Direct entry for Detectives with finance or IT backgrounds for specialist investigations could be explored carefully too.”

In last year’s survey more than half of detectives said that cuts have had a negative impact on team morale, while a quarter stated that they had impacted on physical and mental health.

The new Police Federation of England and Wales campaign will see the Federation release a series of case studies to highlight the stress that comes with being a detective, the types of investigative work that officers get involved with and the detrimental impact that a lack of resources is having.