Force responds to shortage of detectives

18 May 2020

The Force is planning to recruit detectives through the Police Now programme later this year as it struggles to find officers to fill the spaces left by the retirement of a number of experienced investigators.

The move comes after a period in which the Force, after setting up its new Detective Academy, was bucking the trend and not experiencing other forces’ difficulties in maintaining detective numbers.

Through the academy, officers wanting to become detectives were placed onto either the PPU or CID following an assessment scenario, given the Blackstone’s study manuals and then allocated study time so they could prepare for the National Investigators’ Examination (NIE).

The Force also led the way in terms of how the course was delivered.

Jon Nott, who was working as a detective up until becoming West Midlands Police Federation chair in November last year, said the learning and development department completely re-wrote the CID course.

He explained: “It used to be a six-week course. But research found this was putting off a number of people and certainly a fair few working flexible as it was difficult for them to adapt their arrangements. They split it down into modules of two to three-day courses which means it is easier for people to attend.

“This has been running for at least a couple of years now and has meant that we had good numbers and an increase in people applying to join the academy and become detectives. However, I have been recently contacted by the head of FCID who says we are going to be recruiting a number of Police Now detectives later this year as we have continued to see the loss of experienced detectives from the organisation and now have vacancies that are struggling to be filled.”

The issues around recruiting and retaining detectives are, according to Jon, seen across the country.

He said: “There are numerous issues around the crisis in terms of pay, loss of unsocial hours enhancement, large workload and the risk that is carried within that workload especially within the PPU that are putting people off from applying to become detectives. I think we may also be looking at the Degree-Holder Entrance Programme (DHEP) that steers people to becoming a detective at the end of their probation by focussing on that throughout.”

Jon’s comments come as the national Federation chair, John Apter, called for an investment in detective recruitment and training after figures obtained by the Press Association revealed more than 12,000 devices, including laptops, mobile phones and tablets, were awaiting examination by officers across England and Wales, leading to delays with some investigations.

The Force has trained officers to complete the downloads necessary from mobile phones and they can be done quite quickly when needed. However, there are longer delays with laptops and desktops as these have to be done by Force forensic examiners.

PFNDF Detectives in Crisis