How do we make being a detective attractive again?

THE number of detectives has fallen at South Yorkshire Police since cuts began at the force.

There are now 520 qualified detectives at South Yorkshire, down from 545 in 2009. The fall is in line with the national trend which has seen HMIC warn of a “national crisis” in investigation.

The number of lower ranking detectives has increased however, South Yorkshire Police Federation has found. The number of detective constables has grown – from 345 to 370 – and the number of temporary detective sergeants has also increased since eight years ago.

Zuleika Payne, South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair, said: “Certainly there is still an appetite there for people to become detectives, but clearly it is not as great as it used to be. If you look at the recent voluntary exit scheme; of the total number of applicants for voluntary severance, a disproportionately high number of these were detectives wanting to exit the organisation.

“This is a discretionary scheme so these indidviduals are wanting to leave the organisation and that is worrying for the future because the detective role obviously requires a lot of specialist training.”

Detectives are under a huge amount of strain because of the nature of the investigations they carry out and the risks attached.

Ms Payne added: “The pressure to secure all the evidence, to secure the conviction, to give the case credibility in court and so on – there is a huge amount of strain on a diminished workforce.

“But here in South Yorkshire they want to do a great job and are motivated by that. They want to be involved in something that’s incredibly important, incredibly protracted, and to work hard to locate the offenders, compile the evidence and to ultimately secure that conviction. And when officers achieve that there is an immense sense of pride and personal satisfaction.”

• A report into police effectiveness exposed a “national crisis” in the shortage of detectives and investigators in “many” forces, HMIC said in last month’s PEEL report. The findings warned the shortage often led to “excessive workloads and stress amongst those currently in the roles”.