At least 20 jobs to go in CID shake-up as police force bids to save millions

South Yorkshire Police hopes to save up to £2m annually by managing some of its CID functions from one central location rather than having separate district teams.

The force is trying to make £40m of savings between 2011 and 2015 due to cuts in Government funding and rising costs.

A total of 450 police officers and other staff will be affected by the restructuring in the force’s public protection units, its reactive CID teams and intelligence handling offices.

Twenty posts, including 13 officers and seven other staff, will be lost when the management of the force’s four district intelligence teams is centralised, while a further five Detective Sergeant and one Detective Chief Inspector roles could go if another strand of the scheme is approved.

As part of the plans, South Yorkshire will also double the size of its Apollo Unit dealing with rape and serious sexual assault, meaning they can investigate the offences themselves rather than simply dealing with victims and witnesses.

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Martyn Bates, who is leading the CID restructuring, said the project was being driven by the need to make savings imposed by the Government’s 2010 spending review.

He said: “We are trying to protect neighbourhood and local policing. With CID, we have looked at whether we can deliver it locally but manage it centrally so we can take out layers of management supervision.”

Under the plans, which will be in place by October, the recording and inputting of intelligence data will be done centrally rather than at district level. This means only one Detective Inspector will be needed to oversee the work.

Tony Brookes, CID representative for South Yorkshire’s Police Federation, said: “The concern is that there are not going to be enough detectives to cope with the work that has come in.”