Detective Establishment (941A/21)
Request
- What detective-based departments are there in your organisation?
- What is the overall detective establishment for your organisation?
- What is your current overall ‘actual’ establishment for detectives?
- Of this total, how many are ‘trainee detectives?
- How many vacancies are there currently overall?
- Which department has the greatest detective vacancy rate?
- How many detectives retire on average each year?
- How may detectives have retired in 2021, 2020, 2019?
- Are there any foreseen future issues expected with detective retirement in the next 5 years?
- How many ‘trainee detective’ roles were created by the organisation in 2021 2020 2019?
- Specifically, in relation to general office / divisional CID- what is the overall establishment?
- Specifically, in relation to general office / divisional CID- what is the actual establishment?
- Specifically, in relation to general office / divisional CID- what are the current vacancy rates?
- Specifically, in relation to general office / divisional CID- how many detectives left this role in 2021, 2020 and 2019
- Are exit interviews undertaken for detectives leaving a detective role?
- If so, how many were recorded in 2021, 2019, 2018?
- During the last round of Divisional / General Office detective recruitment- how many people applied?
CLARIFICATION
There are two minor amendments and some ”clarifications’ (which may be beneficial) to my original request if that’s OK?
- How many detectives retire on average each year? (last 5-year average)
- If so, how many (exit interviews) were recorded in 2021, 2019, 2018? – should read 2021, 2020, 2019.
- Specifically, in relation to general office / divisional CID– what is the overall establishment? When I talk about General Office / Divisional Detectives I am referring to the ‘non specialist’ detectives that work on a Basic Command Unit who pick up the day to day more complex / serious crimes from the response and neighbourhood teams.
Detectives within Child Protection Investigation Units, Fraud, Holmes, and other ‘Special Units’ for example would not be included in this specific question.
- During the last round of Divisional / General Office detective recruitment- how many people applied. For this question I mean how many ‘trainee Investigators plus qualified detectives who may have been in another role (uniformed or detective).
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). In relation to exit interviews, there is a standard exit interview that can be completed however this is anonymous so it is not possible to provide number of detectives, we would need to conduct a manual search of all exit interviews in order to locate and retrieve this information, which would exceed the FOI time limit.
The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.