Civilian detectives axed as austerity hits force

South Yorkshire Police says all of its local civilian investigators, who look into less serious offences such as shop-lifting and some types of burglary to free up warrant-card holding detectives, will be removed as part of a review.

Bosses say services to the public will not be affected, but a union has claimed the loss of the positions will put more work on the shoulders of already over-stretched police officers.

The force, which is saving £49m between 2011 and 2015, says axeing the investigators will help meet the £8.1m a year savings it needs in local policing.

It is moving to a ‘platinum model’ for dealing with child sexual exploitation at a cost of an extra £4.9m a year at the request of crime commissioner Shaun Wright, who has since resigned.

A force spokeswoman said: “There has been a comprehensive review and re-design of structures and processes which will see this function absorbed into the Inspector-led larger, flexible local policing teams approved by the force Senior Command Team in March 2014.

“Service to the public and our business community will not reduce. We will seek to concentrate resources where they are required.”

The roles of civilian investigators, who are often retired officers, vary but they help detectives by carrying out routine tasks such as taking statements and retrieving CCTV footage.

Ian Armitage, of Unison’s South Yorkshire Police Branch, said that as a result of the cuts “the work will have to be passed onto to someone, who will probably be police officers”.

He said: “We are trying to work with South Yorkshire Police and find as many position for those people as possible. In these days of austerity we are struggling with that. The senior command team are working very hard to mitigate as many job losses as possible.

“The role these people do is very important for districts, they take a lot of work and pressure off police officers who are going to have to take these workloads on.

“It is not just police officers’ workloads which have gone through the roof. You are looking at a reduction of 500 police staff, but we still have the same amount of work. It has got to affect the level of services to the public. There is no alternative. Because of the cuts, the level of service the public of South Yorkshire gets will inevitably be affected.”

The extra money being invested in public protection, including tackling child sex abuse, saw 57 staff brought in by April and a further 47 by next April. Many will be used to form specialist domestic abuse investigation teams.

But a review is now under way into “whether the increase in staff is justified and appropriate, as well as reviewing the placement of the additional staff to ensure the resources available most closely meet the demands placed on the force.”