Action For Detectives

Young-in-service officers should be encouraged to explore the career possibilities of becoming a detective to help address the shortage of detectives in the force, the Chair of Hampshire Police Federation has said.

Zoë Wakefield was speaking after The Police Federation National Detectives’ Forum met to discuss the shortage of detectives across the country, as well as the new official accreditation for detectives, the MSc in Investigation Practice.

Zoë said it was “massively important” that the force recognised and rewarded detectives.
She said: “There are a lot of new officers in the force now – something like 1,200-1,500 who have got less than three years’ service. We need to find the people who are interested in investigations, who could develop that skillset.

“At the moment, all they see is the main CID office. But they need to know about major crime, surveillance, and the regional crime group. There are a lot of really good specialisms that could be really interesting and exciting for them.

“I think a lot of people would be interested in being a detective if they knew they could then go on to a team that investigates murders or that looks at organised crime groups. You need to tap into that large group of young-in-service officers and there’s got to be a financial incentive to go onto that department.”