12-week detective academy ‘insult’ to serving officers

Graduate plan to tackle investigator shortage in West divides force:

POLICE chiefs are recruiting graduates to become Avon and Somerset detectives on a 12week training course labelled an “insult” to CID officers.

The force is one of only eight across the country signed up to the new fast-track apprenticeships aimed at tackling a chronic shortage of investigators.

The force has about 40 detectives fewer than it needs, which is expected to rise to 60 by the summer, out of the 500 currently serving across the region. To close the gap, the force is recruiting roughly 10 graduates with two years’ work experience for the Police Now National Detective Programme.

A job advert says: “The course starts with the 12-week ‘detective academy’ course in September 2019, and is followed by hands-on experience alongside qualified police. After two years you’ll be a fully qualified detective, with a guaranteed job with Avon and Somerset police.”

But, when the Home Office announced the project last summer, the England and Wales Police Federation, which represents rank-andfile officers, criticised the idea as “an insult to detectives” and warned it would “shatter morale and do nothing to instil public confidence and trust”.

Speaking on Thursday to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Avon and Somerset Police Federation chairman Andy Roebuck said he had concerns about the training but that he welcomed the additional plainclothed officers. He said: “We’re currently operating about 40 detectives light for the force. In our predictions, by the end of the summer it’s likely to be around 60. We have got real pain with our numbers of staff, so obviously any injection that brings more capacity for us is a positive.

“The demand has gone up, the complexities of what our detectives are investigating has gone up, but the resourcing levels have gone down.

“In theory, the Police Now scheme would be much-needed assistance to our creaking investigations and the detectives we have at this moment. Our main concern, which we have just started discussing with the constabulary, is the actual train- ing and what that looks like. Just by having a 12-week course doesn’t make you a murder detective.

“We’re very conscious we need to support these new people coming in.

“The federation wants to support them by ensuring Avon and Somerset gives meaningful training that includes mentoring and assurances that they’re going to be brought into this new world of being a detective by giving them all the skills they need.

“Yes, we’ve got concerns about the standard of the 12 weeks, but the organisation is very responsive.

“They do not want people that are going to suffer because they cannot deal with what they’re being requested to investigate, because that fails the public, and the individual doesn’t feel they’re doing a meaningful job if they cannot do it.

“We’re in agreement with the force that it has to be meaningful training.

“There is no point giving a North Sea oil rig worker a hand-drill and a piece of concrete in the middle of the country to try to become an oil rig worker.”

Mr Roebuck said the recruits would “supplement, not replace” existing officers who wanted to join CID.

An Avon and Somerset police spokesman said: “We are incredibly lucky to already have outstanding detectives in our force who provide a fantastic service to our communities, bringing offenders to justice and ensuring victims are provided with the support they need.

“However, we face the same issues as other forces across the country in that we have a number of positions in Investigations we’d like to fill.

“The Police Now programme, endorsed by the Home Office, provides an alternative entry route to anyone with a degree who has ambitions of becoming a detective or who would otherwise not have considered a career in policing.

“Applicants to Police Now face a rigorous selection process and are required to pass the same exams officers traditionally have to undertake and will complete a number of roles across the force before taking up a post in Investigations.”

He added: “Serving officers will have the same opportunities as they always have and will continue to be encouraged should they wish to pursue a career as a detective.”