Met struggles to hire officers to investigate serious crime

THE Scotland Yard unit that tackles major crimes such as homicide, firearms, drugs and armed robbery is facing a recruitment crisis with more than 300 vacancies, a report has found.

Specialist Crime Command, one of the Met’s busiest units, is struggling to fill posts in a number of areas, because the highly trained officers can get better pay and conditions in the private sector.

The resourcing crisis is keenly felt in financial crime, where specialist investigators and analysts are proving extremely difficult to recruit and retain.

A report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) warned that the lack of resources is having an impact on the force’s ability to tackle serious and organised crime.

Alongside murder, robbery, gang crime and modern slavery, specialist crime command, also has responsibility for economic and cyber crime, online and child sexual exploitation.

But the HMICFRS report found the unit was operating with 300 staff and officer vacancies. Inspectors also found that almost a fifth of financial investigator posts were unfilled. One unit was operating with eight members of staff when it should have 50.

The report stated: “Some economic crime teams perceived that they were unable to dedicate enough time to serious and organised crime investigations.

“They felt they were expected to support investigations into high-risk missing persons and targeting wanted fugitives; tasks that could be completed by other force personnel such as financial intelligence officers.”

Inspectors found that of the 228 highly skilled analyst posts in the Met, 40 were vacant, which was affecting its ability to gather evidence in complex cases.

The report said: “Operational staff reported difficulties in securing analytical support to present complex evidence for court.

“In some cases, investigators attempted to complete this work themselves without requisite expertise.”

The Met recently failed to hit its uplift target and Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, has said the buoyant job market in the capital is making recruitment increasingly challenging.