Extra training, longer and less consistent hours are driving police officers away from the Crime Investigation Department (CID). So with fewer officers wanting to emulate TV cops like Jim Taggart and Gene Hunt, Chief Reporter Emily Walker asks whether we could soon have a shortage of CID detectives?

The men in charge of Sussex Police's CID and the Sussex Police Federation fear without better incentives, the role of the detective could be on its way out.

Head of Sussex Police CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Moore, said detectives could feel their extra hard work and training was not being rewarded, putting them off the extra exams needed to tackle the most serious offences.

He said: “There were historically fairly small remunerative benefits to being a detective.

“They were never massive.

“The plain clothes allowance used to be about the price of a suit.

“I used to use mine to pay for the dry cleaning of my work suit and it just about paid for that.

“And there were other incidental allowances.

“All those allowances have gone now under a new pay deal they brought in about seven or eight years ago.

“The whole rank and file organisation benefited.

“But I guess I think that people with particular skills should have this recognised.

“Not just detectives, but there are lots of other specialisms people go through extra training for.

“If other people in the private sector needed extra skills for their jobs that would be recognised.

“If, arguably, as a detective constable you require a plethora of skills then you should receive more money than a police sergeant, but it doesn't work like that.

“To me being a detective is the best job in the police service.

“I wouldn't have done it so long if I didn't honestly believe that. And to me I would still want to be a detective regardless of salary.

“A number of officers get the opportunity to work in specialist areas, like homicide and serious organised crime, and that can be the pinnacle of an officer’s achievement.

“But if you can earn the same doing something less taxing and which is less impactive on your personal life, then I can see why that would appeal to some people.

“Over the past few years there has been a reduced number of people coming into the CID.”

Det Ch Supt Moore said that when he first wanted to become a detective he had to first go through a trial period with CID, then take the exam and official training programme, then wait for a vacancy.

Some hopeful detectives had to wait months or years for a coveted detective job, but now there is no wait at all.

The shortage of candidates has even lead to the exam pass mark to get on to the National Detective Training Programme being lowered from 80% in the 1980s to 48.6% this year.

Det Ch Supt Moore, who has spent most of his 35 year career in CID, said changing lifestyles also had a big impact on officers' desire to become detectives.

Sussex Police currently has 73 CID vacancies, including posts for 58 detective constables.

He said: “I have had hundreds of occasions where my wife has had to say ‘Kevin's been called out’ and cancel our plans.

“But for a lot more couples now, they both work. And both take more of a role in the childcare.

“I'm not saying that is right or wrong, but people live their lives differently and the chaotic working life of a CID officer may not fit in with that so well any more.”

Detective Inspector Brian Stockham, the chairman of the Police Federation's detective forum, and head of the Sussex Police Federation, has warned “If things carry on like this we will have no detectives left in the country in ten years."

Deputy chairman of the Sussex Police Federation, PC Nick Dimmer agreed and blamed civilian investigators, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Olympics for driving Sussex's PCs away from detective training.

He said: “The drop in the number of people wanting to join CID has been going on gradually for probably five or ten years.

“But the tap is no longer dripping.

“One of the things that jumps out at me is the role of civilian investigators.

“If you have civilian investigators coming in, who's going to be tomorrow's detectives?

“Detectives are no longer seen to be specialists.

“There is no financial incentive to be a detective any more.

“Uniformed officers don't have to pay out hundreds of pounds for a uniform but detectives have to pay out for their suits.

“CID officers can have to change around their working hours a lot. They might have to deal with something at night then follow up their enquiries eight hours later.

“The work load is increasing because of the amount of time they have to spend on the files.

“There are more and more demands from the CPS on an officer to prepare files for court.

“SOCA is also part of the problem.

“Forces several years ago had specialist investigators.

“More major crime has now been moved over and out of our hands.

“There isn't the variety of crime that local CID investigate any more.

“The days of the Sweeney and the flying squad are long gone.

“The Metropolitan Police are recruiting detective roles and specialist teams like for the Olympics.

“We have noticed a lot of experienced officers going north to go to the Met.

“There has to be something to make it attractive for officers to want to become detectives. And at the moment there isn't really that.”