CID Officers

Written by David Trader

Friday, 12 December 2008 00:00

I have been asked by a few people to expand on how CID officers work and how they investigate crime. Well I am quite happy to tell you how they do basic investigations but anything more complex I will have to abstane

CID officers are considered to be more experienced and experts in the investigation of crime. This would have been true about 10-15 years ago but now we have this bit of legislation called equal opportunities, we are encouraging officers with little more than 2 years service to apply for CID.

To make an effective investigator you need to use all those around you to gain the information and evidence you require for a successful investigation. Some examples of this are as follows

Draw on the experience of those detectives you work with (If they have over 4 years in the role)
Draw on sources of information
Examine the evidence you have in front of you
Speak to the Scene Of Crime Officer attending your scene
Lastly, use the ones that are on the road 24/7. The uniformed officer, especially the neighbourhood officers!!

I get increasingly frustrated that having spent so many years on CID and used those resources to good effect that they are not used so well these days. An example.

A victim of crime is terminally ill and this reaches the press. With no forensic leads and no witnessses the crime gets filed by the CID. Not satisfied with this I spoke to some people I knew on the estate and hey presto we recover the property and have 4 in the bin! All 4 go to court and rather than risk being beaten up by criminal associates on their release they plead guilty and are sent to prison! Well done CID!

The police get reports of missing people and children on a daily basis. Where I work we probably get 3 or 4 children go missing every day. These kids are of the background that commit crime on a daily basis and go out with their mates to do so. When they have commited their crime they stay out with their mates and so they are reported missing. Controversially I believe that we should not be wasting our time on these kids. They are street wise enough to protect themselves. The problem comes when one of the kids who is not so street wise gets into trouble and needs our help. If a child or adult is not back within 24 hours then the investigation is reviewed by a senior officer and actions are set. If the person is still not found after a period of time then a dedicated person will be allocated to investigate the whereabouts of the missing person. This is normally a detective.

Very ocassionally, we get a murder. My force, like every other force, has a major crime department responsible for investigating murders. Whilst they have sufficient staff to deal with it they normally like to have a local CID officer or two on the investigation to help with local knowledge.

Believe it or not Murder is not as common as the press would have you believe.