Privatised detectives
Force hires ex-CID staff through agency to deal with sex crimes
A MAJOR police force is replacing detectives working on sex crimes with £20-an-hour investigators hired by a private firm.
Senior officers made the move after budget cuts of £100million.
The investigators are ex-cops who have worked in CID but are being hired through a private company.
But Thames Valley Police insists it does not mean the force is failing to seriously tackle sexual offences. The jobs were posted on the Police Oracle website, asking for “a number of investigators” on six-month contracts. It said they would attend calls including burglary, fraud and “low level” sex offences. Duties listed included taking witness statements and helping to interview suspects.
Thames Valley chief constable Francis Habgood said in May the force faced “continuing financial pressures” as costs and demand rose. In February it said 59 officers would be cut.
The workers are hired from Police Skills, part of Red Snapper recruitment. Red Snapper made more than £5million A BATTLING schoolgirl terribly injured in the Manchester bombing strikes a blow against terror yesterday as she finally goes back to her karate class.
Lily Harrison, eight, spent weeks in hospital after shrapnel from the blast passed straight through her lung.
Twenty-two people died and 120 were hurt in the Islamist-inspired suicide attack at an Ariana Grande show at the Manchester Arena in May.
The youngster beamed as she earned a Green Belt and opened a new dojo at her club in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire. She said she had missed the sport – especially “punching”.
Mum Lauren, also hurt in the blast, said: “Lily was gutted when she couldn’t do it. Watching her friends moving up belts she worried she wouldn’t make the next belt herself.” Lily met her idol Ariana when the singer visited suicide bomber Salman Abedi’s young victims at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Lily’s instructor Paul Ferris said: “She’s bounced straight back. This shows terrorists will never win.” staffing the controversial IHAT Iraq veterans probe. Thames Valley Police said: “Civilian investigators can draw on experience and have been used across the country. They must have police qualifications and are managed by a detective sergeant.” Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh said: “It’s further damage from Tory austerity. “The Prime Minister should be embarrassed her local force has had to contract out these kinds of investigations.”