Females in police drama roles prompt women to be detectives

FEMALE leads in popular crime drama series has led to a surge in women signing up to become detectives.

More women than men have signed up to Scotland Yard’s fast-track scheme, even though they make up around a third of normal applications.

Shows such as The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson as DSI Stella Gibson, have been credited with the increasing numbers of women applying.

The Met has faced a detective recruitment crisis, with a shortage of investigators in CID units, so announced last year it was to become the first in the UK to try the scheme, which means they are not required to do two years in uniform on the beat.

Det Ch Supt Stephen Clayman told the Evening Standard: “A number of people said they would not have applied to join if it was not for this scheme, so the process has opened up policing to a different group of people, which is hugely encouraging.”

According to figures more than 4,430 people registered an interest, with 2,733 following up with a full application.

In total, 51 per cent of those who made a full application were women.