Police Staff Investigators

Detective Superintendent Kelly Glister: Police Staff Investigators are a valued resource within our policing family. They currently sit within our specialist crime and protecting vulnerable people teams to offer support and resilience to serious and complex crime organisations.

PSIs perform a whole range of tasks from victim and witness statements, submission of forensic requests and files, reviewing evidential material and providing support to detectives with interviewing suspects.

Nicole: I work in CID, which is the Criminal Investigation Department. The department deals with serious and complex investigations. I’ve worked in the department now for nearly seven and a half years and work alongside the detectives investigating crimes such as kidnap and attempted murder.

The role of a PSI is invaluable to investigations as it supports officers with obtaining statements, collecting CCTV and interviewing suspects, victims and witnesses for their case loads. We work closely as a team, especially when live incidents come in, as getting as much evidence as possible within the first few hours can be crucial.

Sue: I also have specialist police staff investigators and managers that support the force response to very specific tasks centred around fraud and financial investigation.

The Financial Investigation Unit are sat within the Economic Crime Unit and we are based at force headquarters. The FIU department has a mix of staff and officers who carry the same function as financial investigators, and we’re accredited with powers from the National Crime Agency. Our primary role is to use the Proceeds of Crime Act to deprive criminals of their ill-gotten gains and this can take many different forms. The money that comes back into force funds the FI staff positions, as well as a percentage of that the PCC can allocate out to good causes. We have significant investigative powers and as such we support numerous departments across the force such as CID, SOC, FIB, Serious Collision Investigation Unit, MOSOVO and the MISPER team, to name just a few, as financial intelligence can be used across many different crime investigations.

Det. Supt. Glister: Communication skills are vital to the role of a PSI and they need to be personally resilient to manage a variety of demands and adverse situations that they may see and hear. They must be methodical, pay attention to detail, and work both alone and as part of a team to meet deadlines and to do the very best they can for victims of crime and our communities.

Nicole: I love being in CID and how each day is different. One day we can be dealing with a stabbing and the next we are dealing with a sexual assault. I left school at 16 and went to a whole array of jobs because I’d get bored easily. I would stay in a job for three to six months and then want to do something else, as I wouldn’t enjoy what I was doing. This is the first job that I’ve had where I haven’t actually dreaded coming to work and genuinely love the role that I do.

Sue: Our current police staff have at least 50 years of experience within the department collectively. We are a very small team working in the background, touching many different departments, often without anybody knowing. We get some amazing results and we feel very proud and passionate about what we do.