Professionalising Investigation Programme

Bernard Lawson says that the national strategic business programme will help to deliver the best possible service to the public.

The Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) is a strategic business change programme designed to modernise the workforce and deliver the capability to conduct professional investigations. It impacts across all aspects of policing, from Level 1 for priority and volume investigations through to Level 3 for major investigations with a further level (4) for strategic critical, complex and protracted investigations in the pipeline.

So why is it so important and what lessons can we learn? The key is in the simple word ‘professionalism’. What do we mean by that? We claim to be a professional police service, but how can we demonstrate that? In most professional organisations or bodies certain planks must be in place.

There needs to be a clearly defined set of standards, based upon a body of knowledge which defines the professional practice that every individual can be measured against to prove ‘professional competence’ in their chosen sphere of work. This is supported by regulatory bodies who define the standards, update them or create new ones as a profession expands its work through proven research. A ‘register’ exists of those who are qualified having demonstrated their competence to practice and recording their ongoing and continuous professional development in the spirit of life-long learning.

Does this sound familiar when talking about PIP? PIP has provided a framework that allows individual investigative competence to be assessed against specific performance criteria for the role. The police can evidence they are truly professional by demonstrating their competence against the central plank of the National Occupational Standards (NOS). Many officers do so already through the PDR system – more of this later.

These standards are drawn together by Skills for Justice after consultation with subject experts within the police service. ACPO and the NPIA have captured the professional practice which underpins all investigations through consultation with experienced practitioners and academics to develop learning products, good practice and doctrine which provides the learning and development for investigators. They also provide a national registrar who keeps the ‘book of SIOs’ updated and validated. All of this has been conducted by the NPIA for the PIP programme board sponsored by the chair of the ACPO crime buiness area.

I have now moved professionalising investigation into my ACPO crime business area ‘it does what it says on the tin’ standards training and competence (STC) sub-group. STC is comprised of stakeholders from ACPO, APA, NPIA, HMIC, Skills for Justice, CPS and importantly the staff associations who support the thrust to recognise the work of their staff as professionals.

We can all see the benefit of PIP-accredited staff providing excellent policing service to the public, be they victims or witnesses. Importantly it provides an accredited level of evidence to the criminal justice system that can be relied upon and trusted and when tested in the courts found to be robust, fair and accurate.

These benefits are far reaching, providing professional staff to carry out effective investigations to improve public confidence and satisfaction. PIP improves skills and occupational competence to deliver investigations across the operational world, through to the APACS performance framework of promoting safety, tackling crime, serious crime and protections and organisational management capability.

The professionalising of investigations has and continues to develop through all areas of investigations. For example many forces, such as Greater Manchester Police (GMP) now deliver specialist training in relation to tier three and five specialist interviewers and coordinators for offences, such as murder and other serious and complex investigations.

Trained and accredited professionals provide the interview strat