Growing shortage of detectives

We have frequently reported on the police failing to live up to expectations. The number of police are a factor in reducing crime but perhaps much more important are the quality and qualifications of the police. A measure, albeit very imperfect, for the number of well-qualified, expert police officers is the number of detectives. The data we have shows that there is a growing shortage of detectives.

The number of budgeted detective posts in 2019/20 was just shy of 40,000. Just under 39,000 of these posts were filled, leaving a gap of about 940 unfilled posts. By 2024/25 the number of posts had grown to over 43,500 but the number of detectives had dropped to under 38,000 — a shortfall of about 5,700.

Written by GroundUp and The Outlier and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.

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