GREATER Manchester bobbies are snubbing the chance to follow in Gene Hunt's footsteps and join the CID.
The star of BBC's Life On Mars thrilled audiences with his politically-incorrect escapades as DCI Hunt, boss of the fictional A Division in Manchester in 1973. But it seems his real-life successors don't quite share his enthusiasm for being a detective.
The long hours and the possibility of a pay cut are putting off many officers from joining CID.
Greater Manchester Police is struggling to fill CID vacancies across all its divisions.
Officers are being put off by the extra hours and workload as well as a possible pay cut.
They prefer the more regular hours in uniform or to join specialist squads like the force's Major Incident Team or the Counter Terrorism Unit.
It has led to a recruitment crisis in CID at a time when large numbers of the force's most experienced and capable officers are reaching retirement age.
Force insiders have expressed concern that serious crime isn't being investigated to previous standards.
Detectives
One officer said: "With the best will in the world, even a very capable officer with just three years of service isn't going to have the nous of the detective with 30 years in the job who he has just replaced.
"There is a problem with filling posts in CID. All the best officers are being sucked into the specialist units, which these days have the glamour and kudos that CID used to have. Officers are treated better in those units. In CID, the workload is just non-stop and detectives are easily putting in more than 40 hours a week."
Front line officers and detectives are eligible to receive a so-called Special Priority Payment worth £1,200, which is referred to as a Christmas bonus by cops because it is paid in the November pay packet to those whose applications are approved.
But those who decide to become trainee detectives effectively forego it for a year because they aren't eligible to apply until they have completed 12 months in plain-clothes.
The officer said: "That's a big hit if you have a wife and kids. You can see why they're not interested in CID."
Chris Burrows, chairman of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, said: "The difficulties of recruiting people to CID are a reflection of the pressures and workload those officers face on a daily basis."
Nationally, the Federation has estimated there are about 5,000 vacancies for detectives in CID.
Assistant Chief Officer, Julia Rogers, said: “We currently have 88 per cent of CID posts filled across the force, compared with 81pc this time last year.
“We are constantly looking at ways to fill vacancies, and have recently recruited a number of highly skilled CCTV experts and exhibits officers to fill roles that at one time were carried out by detectives.
“GMP has been rated as excellent by HMIC in tackling serious and organised crime for the past three years.”
Comments
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Perhaps recruitment is low,because CID recruits can no longer strut around their uniform colleagues with an arrogant air.Use phrases like 'woodentops' and 'can uniform attend the job first',produce a 'CID warrant'card;whilst their uniformed colleagues gleefully wave their pay notices at them,deciding how to spend their Xmas bonus...FYI all Police Officers are Detectives...they just dont display a departmental attitude.
so train some of the unemployed to work with CID there are some clever and intellegent people at home doing nothing through redundancy and unemployment, i will start today lol.
Don’t you just love literary licence. Anyone who knows what’s going on will know that although this is basically correct, (very basically). It doesn’t really reflect what’s actually going on.
Police Officers and all Police Officers, 24 -7, the one's who do not do their job to the best of their knowledge then should retire and join the day to day real life outside the wonderful life of TV series.
ha ha what a joke the police service in this country is. They can't even recruit internally for certain departments.
Mark, Radcliffe, me thinks you profess to much, are you one of the woodentops?
Although I'm not one of them, FYI, surely the difference is all Police Officers are 'investigators' and their fellow CID officers trained and qualified to a much higher standard?
Its maybe the fact that their status has been so dumbed down, that its felt that they aren't needed anymore, quite possibly they aren't, but until then, I know who I'd want investigating a more serious offence and it wouldn't be a PCSO or a less experienced uniformed officer.
Sounds to me like the problem lies not with the people at lower levels who are not applying to go into the CID but with those at the higher levels who seem to have created an incentive for people not to apply.
I don't know of many people who will volunteer to take a large pay cut for no benefit to themselves or anybody else for that matter, that is not selfishness or greed, it is simply common sense.
It seems to me that the problem lies with an hierarchy who are full of imaginative theory and lacking in experience and practicalities. Moaning that nobody is applying for certain positions is pointless, what is needed is to find out why and make the appropriate changes to alter the situation and make those posts attractive.
No wonder the police force, sorry service, have lost all respect from the public if they can't solve a simple difficulty like making a particular job attractive. Don't just whinge about it, do something and solve the problem.
Big Brother, North West
Absolute muppet.
My brother is a DC in Manchester on a Division. He says everything the reporter quotes in here is true....Divisional CID offices are made up mainly out of trainee detectives who weren`t allocated the SPP payment last year..it caused outrage amongst the trainee DCs many of whom had moved into the CID from uniform posts where they could claim the SPP..these trainee DCS have to pass hard exams and courses to become a DC....the comments by the ACC do not relate to Divisional CID offices according to my brother...no divisional CID offices have CCTV experts or exhibits officers helping them...in faqct he says they dont even have enuff cars and computers to do the job !!!!these people must work on MIT / CTU which further proves the point that divisional CID is the poor relation of the squads....my brother is disgusted with the comments by the ACC...it proves to him that the police bosses dont really care about the local CID and this is the DCs who are supposed to help us all.....and dont slag off the local CID they work really hard .......and to the numpty who says CID wave their payslips at the "woodentops" are you a frustrated woodentop who could never get in the cid...numpty...
I have to say that i aggree with the comments that all police officers are detectives. I joined the police because i wanted to provide a service to the public and assist in making our area a better place to live. However i must point out that the Special Priority Pay is possibly one of the most devisive ideas brought into this Force. I too am a detective, however i work in the Child Protection Unit. On a daily basis i investigate serious crimes against children. I investigate these cimes from the point of disclosure and complaint to building a prosecution case file right up to conviction at court. I often work long hours, I also work weekends. I have often still been at work until 3 or 4 in the morning. I do not get SPP. Up until last year officers in my role were put on a reserve list for SPP, which meant we would share, with others, whatever was left in the "pot" but this year we are told we will not be entitled at all. I dont begrudge those who do get it but i really dont understand the reasoning behind why some should be paid it and some who appear to be in similar roles dont.
I love my job and just get on with it, and take comfort and satisfaction from the results we can acheive. But please Oh 'Great leaders of GMP' sort out the unfairness of the SPP.
Voice of Reason...I am not a 'woodentop',but it no doubt will get to the stage when volunteering for such a role will be replaced with,"tough,you're doing it".At that point I would rather have a keen PCSO turn up than an a CID Officer,who believes he's being punished,or not at all interested in his role.As for Concerned Mancunian,re-read my posting I think the payslip waving was not done by CID.As for numpty,that is your opinion,not actually backed up with anything to suggest so.If I was a woodentop,I wouldnt want to go in CID,as the article highlights,its not worth it financially.If a numpty can work that one out,like lily posted,its about time GMP bosses resolved the issue.Now back to my retirement.....
Judging by the amount of serving officers posting up here? It does seem even more worrying that our police forces are in even more disarray and disunity than I ever imagined? Not sure what every one else's thoughts are on this? How much of a knock on effect is this having on moral? Recruting? And getting the job done? Like clearing our streets of the filth and scum that seem to be taking over just roaming and gun/drug running at will? It does not bode well, I can see the day that we will have the army controlling the streets, because the police force will be under staffed and in a complete mess? It's coming to something when the police start posting comments up on a news site to air their grievences with the upper echelons shall we say? Concerned member of the Joe Public?
It's all going to get much worse, in particular in Salford and Tameside where they are rolling out a system that takes more bobbies off the beat and puts them in office roles. These office roles can be undertaken by trained civilians. You have been warned.