Squad of retired police to aid CID

A NATIONAL squad of retired detectives is to be set up by chief constables to help crack unsolved murders. Police forces throughout the country will be able to hire the former officers, all of whom will have experience in leading major investigations, for between pounds 15 to pounds 20 an hour.

Britain's first database of retired officers is being established because of a shortage of experienced murder detectives. Advertisements for ex- CID officers to apply for work in the agency will go out in three weeks and the service is expected to be operating by September. All candidates must be of at least Detective Chief Inspector rank and have been employed in the police service in the past two years.

A list of names and details of an estimated 24 detectives will be held at any one time at the National Crime Faculty at Bramshill, Hampshire.

Forces seeking more help reviewing continuing investigations or re-examining unsolved ones will be able to hire any of the detectives.

The scheme, backed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), is the brainchild of the South Wales force, which already hires retired detectives to help in homicide cases. They have Bill Hacking, former head of Lancashire CID, who retired after 33 years, reviewing the inquiry into the 11-year-old investigation of Lynette White, a prostitute stabbed in Cardiff.

Tony Rogers, chairman of Acpo's homicide working group and the Assistant Chief Constable of South Wales, who will be setting up the list and selecting the candidates, said: "This will provide a national database of recently retired ... officers. They will probably have a shelf-life of 12 to 24 months after retirement."

He said chief officers were partly to blame for the shortage of experienced detectives, because they had failed to promote good practice among murder detectives and had run down CID squads. The shortfall was "largely because senior police officers of Acpo rank have marginalised the CID and killed off the breeding-grounds for future investigators."

Mr Rogers said some police chiefs were frightened of handling CID departments and fearful of tackling allegations of corruption or bad practice. He called the approach "CID leprosy". "Instead of keeping the good bits, they simply throw the baby out with the bath water.

"The shortage of senior investigators is a widespread national problem," he added.

He said this view was supported by CID officers throughout Britain who had been represented on his homicide committee.

The need for more experienced detectives also follows a new national policy in which all unsolved murders are reviewed by a senior investigator after seven days and then a formal review is set up after 28 days. This move follows criticism in the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder, which found that important clues and possible leads were not followed up by the original investigation team.