Essex Needs To Tackle Shortage Of Detectives

1 June 2020

Essex Police is still struggling to retain police officers in the detective role, the Federation Chairman has said.

There’s a national shortage of detectives in policing and The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has called on the Government to provide long-term funding to improve the situation.

The shortage has led to issues such as a delay in examining digital devices to collect evidence. An investigation from the Press Association found that 12,122 devices were awaiting examination by investigators across England and Wales.

Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said that the county was a little ahead of the curve in terms of detectives, but that it was still an issue they were tackling in Essex and that there were plans to grow the detective cohort.

Steve emphasised that he wanted to see the focus on retaining detectives rather than recruiting new ones.

He said: “Recruitment is a real issue because there’s a finite pond from which detectives can be fished. Direct-entry detectives leave me uncomfortable. The skilled Office of Constable is eroded by direct-entry detectives and therefore our energy should be focused on retention and attracting from within, and that costs money.”

He also said that it was important to look at workloads and shift patterns to make detective roles more attractive.

He said: “It’s a specialism. It’s professionalising and spending time on a particular skill set. But you need the basic building blocks of policing in order to make a good detective. You don’t just go to the cupboard and pull out the basic blocks of policing and plug them in and away you go. That’s why there’s a difficulty because, in my view, it does take time.

“There are exceptional people out there that can pick it up very, very quickly, but it’s a skill that needs investment and time and effort. That’s why detectives are so valuable. So a rush to fill the ranks with officers that have passed an exam to be a detective, for example, doesn’t necessarily give you the quality that you would expect from your detectives.”