Met murder detectives facing cuts as homicides rise
SCOTLAND YARD is cutting the number of murder detectives in London despite rapidly rising homicide rates, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
Met bosses are planning to move highly experienced investigators from the murder command to fill gaps in other front line units tackling crimes such as burglary and assault.
The move is intended to address a shortfall in recruitment and to ensure the best detectives are spread across the force, not just concentrated in specialist teams. It is part of the Met’s commitment to prioritise community policing in order to rebuild trust and confidence, in the wake of a scathing review in 2023 which questioned why rape cases were often handled by trainees while seasoned detectives investigated murders.
But the decision has caused widespread alarm among those within the murder command who claim they are already so busy they are at breaking point.
One senior homicide investigator who spoke to The Telegraph said he feared the proposals could impact on the Met’s ability to bring killers to justice. He said: “The detectives on my team are working at full pelt. They are already dealing with multiple cases and more are coming in all the time.
“The officers are telling us they are in danger of burning out and yet the top brass are telling us we need to make efficiencies.
“The idea that there is any fat to trim within murder is crazy. If anything, we need more resources not less.
“In my view there is nothing more important than bringing killers to justice and we should not do anything that might jeopardise that.” While overall murder rates have been falling, there were 103 homicides in 2023 and since the turn of the year there has been a violent killing on average every other day.
Many of the investigations are extremely complex and require hundreds of man hours to scour CCTV footage and download smartphone data.
Murder investigations are split between five regions across the capital and each case is picked up by a team usually consisting of one detective chief inspector, two detective inspectors, four detective sergeants and 18 detective constables. While the scale of the cuts is yet to be finalised, it is feared each team could end up losing one or two constables and a sergeant.
Homicide detectives learned of the plans when they were called to a meeting with Matt Ward, the deputy assistant commissioner, who joined the Met from West Midlands Police in 2023.
He told them that while no final decisions had been taken in terms of numbers, it was felt efficiencies could be made without having an impact on performance. But one current murder
squad detective said any cuts would have a big effect on the morale of those already under huge pressure.
He said: “This is not easy work. Detectives are dealing with extremely distressing situations every day and maintaining their professionalism throughout.
“The amount of work each officer is having to juggle is extraordinary at the moment and the prospect of having to take on even more is causing huge anxiety. “The more we heap onto officers the more likely they are to go off with stress, making the problem even worse.”
DAC Ward said: “We are determined to deliver the service that Londoners deserve. This includes putting more of our great officers into communities. No decisions have been taken about changes to any teams.” Homicide sits within the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, which also investigates serious and organised crime, drugs gangs, cybercrime and preventing online child sexual exploitation.
It includes some of the force’s most highly skilled detectives and is regarded as the pinnacle for aspiring investigators. But Baroness Casey’s scathing review of the Met published in 2023 criticised the way specialist units monopolised the best investigators, leaving front line policing as the “poor relation”.
The report pointed out: “A Met murder investigation will receive a whole team of experienced and specialist trained detectives, whereas a woman raped and left in a coma would likely be dealt with by one trainee detective constable. What message does that send to the living victim?” Other crimes such as assault, robbery and burglary are usually assigned to borough based detectives who may be new to the job and lacking in experience.
Despite the recent uplift programme to hire 20,000 new police officers, the Met has struggled to recruit and retain personnel, including detectives, and is expected to be about 2,000 short of its target this year.