Police force consider ‘zero-hours’ detectives after surge in murder investigations

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

AN unprecedented number of murders in Gwent this year could see the force hire detectives on “zero hour” style contracts to cope with demand.

Gwent Police chief constable Mark Hobrough said the force would normally see between two or three murders a year but in less than a year has launched 11 murder probes.

As a result it has had to fund record amounts of overtime payments and, at times, has had to take neighbourhood officers away from community policing duties to support its major investigations.

The 1,535 officer strong force is considering hiring investigators on “zero hours” style contracts to support some of its major investigations if the scale of demand continues next year, said Mr Hobrough.

Addressing Monmouthshire councillors the chief constable said the other Welsh chief constables have contacted him in light of the “unprecedented” demand and he said: “We’ve had to spend a lot on overtime. It’s an unprecedented amount and unplanned and we’ve got to look after the wellbeing of 1,535 police officers, we’re not a big force.”

In anticipation of there being any similar demand next year the chief constable said he is considering cheaper alternatives to support investigations.

“We’re looking at alternatives and I’ve got an assistant chief constable looking at an almost zero hours type situation to conduct interviews or specialist investigations outside of Gwent Police’s natural boundaries as a cheaper option but that has to be of the same quality. We haven’t got a finished product but do not want to risk burnout and looking at the same individuals.”

He laid bare the scale of demand on the force when he attended Monmouthshire County Council’s public services scrutiny committee meeting.

“In the last 10 months Gwent Police has had 11 murders, for a force that would normally have two to three year, that is a huge abstraction for officers,” said Mr Hobrough.

He said there was no link between the incidents and said there are varying factors: “Those range from organised crime, mental health, substance misuse and domestic violence and there have been different modus operandi and weapons. There is no correlation between them at all.”

He reminded councillors two of the murder investigations are of deaths in Monmouthshire while he said an investigation into a death in Pontypool in Torfaen in August, linked to suspected biker gang violence had resulted in entries on the Holmes database, used for serious and complex crime investigations, increasing by 60 per cent more than any previous Gwent incident.

Police had made 45 arrests and have had to protect 55 scenes linked to the Pontypool murder investigation said Mr Hobrough.

“We’ve had abstractions for our major investigation teams and CID investigating those murders but also our neighbourhood teams on protecting scenes, our response officers who’ve been treating the business as usual at the very same time.”

Increased demand nationally due to public order and policing protest, which even without major incidents in Gwent, has called on force resources as its part of an agreement to support deployments nationally.

In addition to the murder probes Gwent Police has faced additional demand when officers, in July, shot an individual carrying a crossbow in Newport and it supported the fire service as it tackled wildfires in the area.

The chief constable however stressed the force has sought to keep use of neighbourhood officers to support other duties to a minimum

He acknowledged while neighbourhood officers had been “abstracted” in response to the major demands during the first half of this year it is still at an “incredibly low” level.

Mr Hobrough said: “It’s absolutely what we don’t want. Historically it used to be the go to for community officers to staff response cars in a shortage, that isn’t the case now.”

The force is inspected on any diversion, or diversion of its neighbourhood officers from their regular duties with figures published by the inspectorate: “It’s something we talk about on an almost daily basis and needs to be to an absolute minimum and is not a go to position.”

A reduction in the time it takes to answer 101 calls was cited as one impact of the strains on the force.

“Because of those other demands 101 responses have slowed by 50 seconds,” said Mr Hobrough.

Latest figures show the non-emergency calls are answered in two minutes and 23 seconds, but the chief constable said he wanted “to correct the myth callers are waiting for 15 minutes” though acknowledged “that was the case two and a half years ago.”

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