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FANS OF DARK dramas about London crime-fighters will get their chance to become real-life detectives with a new recruitment drive launched by Scotland Yard.
In a first for British policing, detectives will no longer need to have served as patrol officers in uniform, as police chiefs aim to find greater diversity and specialist skills such as dealing with cyber crime.
“London continues to change and so do its criminals,” Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Clayman, head of the recruitment programme, said in a statement.
“Complex crimes such as cyber-criminality and the pressing need to protect vulnerable people mean our investigators need to develop new expertise,” Clayman said, adding that he wanted to see more recruits who “look and feel like the Londoners we serve”.
He said a budding Sherlock Holmes looking to join the force should have “a great eye for detail, be able to manage lots of information, be good logical decision makers and critical thinkers”.
There are currently some 600 detective vacancies in London, although the new scheme is aiming to hire up to 80 detectives initially with a starting salary of just under €30,000.
The Inspectorate of Constabulary, which investigates British policing, has warned of a “severe shortage” of detectives across England and Wales, saying would-be recruits were put off by the high workload, lack of support for trainees and intense scrutiny.
But Tory Ion, a detective working in south London, was quoted in Wednesday’s police statement as saying:
I would encourage anyone looking for an interesting career, where each day is different, to apply.
Applicants need a degree, which was not previously a requirement, and will have to pass the National Investigators Exam within 12 months of joining.
If successful, they would then be trained for two years and receive the title of detective constable.
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A starting salary of just under €30,000 !!!!!!!!! Wouldn’t think there’ll be a mad rush to join.
@John Campbell: it’s more than you’d get here
@John Campbell: €30K in London gets you nowhere. a two bedroom apartment in a decent area would cost your entirely salary, or even more.
Daft idea. One of the key things that separates the police from the military is that every police officer, no matter what their rank or specialisation, has started off as one of the rank and file and done the standard two year probation. Now it’ll have an officer class. Which will entrench contempt. Wonderful.
@Harry Whitehead: they already have an officer class in England… Direct entry at Inspector and Superintendent…. A Detective is the same rank as a Constable by the way….
@Harry Whitehead: in Ireland yes, but in the UK senior ranks have been brought it from outside agencies for years.
@Dublin History: I stand corrected. Still think it’s a daft idea though. There’s already enough bad sentiment between uniforms and CID as it is – somehow I doubt that this will improve matters.
Lot of sleuths here on the Journal.
Shortage? Might the under 30k salary be a reason. If a job is that important and you’re crying out for vacancies, try make it somewhat lucrative.
You would have to ask yourself why there is a shortage of Detectives across England and Wales??? Recruiting people directly as detectives will end up being the worst decision ever made by the Met…. Detectives that have never carried out basic policing functions! Let’s just hope that Ireland doesn’t deside to follow suit….
@Dublin History: i can see why they are abolishing the 2 year uniform stint. If you want to recruit a geeky techie to find an exploit on a suspects mobile phone, you need a different type of person to a street bobby. A geek in a uniform is still a geek and would be easily over powered in a physical tussle. Why put them through that when they will be specialising in non physical encounters
@Dublin History:
I think the point is that you don’t need to have carried out ‘basic policing functions’ to be a good detective. Two completely different jobs.
@Zx5vZulB: why do you assume a techie cannot be physically strong? I know some who are big, beefy rugby players. It’s foolish to perpetuate silly stereotypes…remember all those “stupid Irish” jokes we used to hear from UK comedians?
@Zx5vZulB: even if you are a techie, would you join for £30k a year?
@Joe Bloggs: Hi Joe. Yes I would serve the public as a detective for 30K per year assuming I have enough to live on, and there are plenty more who would do likewise. In a trade off between job satisfaction and wealth generation, the former wins for now.
@John D: I don’t assume that techies cannot be strong. The average hacker or techie spends a lot more time in front of a screen than on the bench press. Why restrict your selection of technical candidates to only those who pass a level of fitness, when you might be eliminating the technically best candidates?
You cannot be too choosey with technical candidates when you are offering 30K in a city with IT support starting salaries at similar levels.
There is a difference between the mental and physical capabilities of people, I think this move recognises that the two aren’t always mutually compatible and may have been excluding good brains from the service.
Or that kids today are lazy feckless shites who spend their lives in front of screens, get ferried everywhere and can’t even walk the length of themselves.
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