14. Criminal investigation department

The CID was organised in 1842 when six officers were selected to form the first Detective Department, following two attempts on Queen Victoria’s life and an outbreak of major crime in London. Now there are about 3,500 men and women detectives working in plain clothes on London’s streets.

All of them are selected for their patience and tact, then trained to make the best use of their aptitude for detective work.

2,000 of them work from police stations in the 75 Divisions that make up the 787 square miles policed by the Met. Each Divisional CID office is run by a Detective Chief Inspector, Detective Ser­geants and Detective Constables to deal with crime investigations. The Detective Chief Inspector is responsible to the Divisional Chief Superintendent on all crime matters. The Division can call on the expertise of more senior Detective Officers - Detective Superin­tendents and Detective Chief Superintendents, who are based on each of the five Areas within the Met - in cases of murder, rape and other serious crime.

Before becoming a detective each officer must have completed two years service as a uniformed constable on probation and have served on a local crime squad, which is made up of qualified CID officers and uniformed officers working in plain clothes.

The constable will then be recommended by his Divisional Super­intendent as being suitable for CID work. He will go on to face a selection board made up of two senior CID officers and a senior uniformed officer.

If selected, the officer will have to carry out further study in his own time, then attend a training course at the Detective Training School at Hendon.

1,500 officers are split into a number of branches and squads; the principle ones are:

The Major Investigation Reserve, which can be called upon to investigate murder and other serious crimes within the Metropolitan Police District and conducts enquiries both at home and abroad on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions or other Government bodies.

The Extradition, Illegal Immigration and Passport Squad investi­gates organised crime relating to the obtaining of British Passports and illegal immigration. It also deals with the extradition of fugitive offenders to Foreign and Commonwealth Countries.

The Central Cheque Squad investigates offences and collates in­formation about organised cheque, travellers cheque and credit card frauds committed against the clearing banks and major stores within the Metropolitan Police District.

The Stolen Motor Vehicle Investigation Squad started life as part of the Flying Squad, but became a squad in its own right in 1960. It is staffed by specialists in the examination of suspect cars. They are particularly adept in spotting cars produced by ‘ringers’, the thieves who “ring the changes” on cars by building them from stolen parts. The squad also specialises in the investigation of organised theft from industrial car plants.

The Serious and Organised Crime Squad was formed to deal with organised crime in London, its successes have earned the men who work for it the name of ‘The Gangbusters’.

The Central Robbery Squad, deals with investigating major armed robberies at banks, building societies, security vehicles and similar commercial targets in the Metropolis. Sometimes these investigations involve officers travelling to other parts of the country and abroad.

The Regional Crime Squad is a national network of crime squads working under a National Coordinator and dealing with serious crime.

The No.9 Regional Crime Squad covers London and is made up of Metropolitan Police Officers and officers from the City of London Police. The squad works closely with the Central Robbery Squad as well as with other Regional Crime Squads, using and acting on infor­mation gleaned from their own confidential sources.

Members of the Regional Crime Squad and the Central Robbery Squad often use their own cars fitted with multi-channel radios, which can be tuned to the frequencies used by police forces all over the country. Each car is also fitted with a short-wave set for car to car communication. This makes it difficult for criminals ‘to listen in’ and get advance warning of a squad’s movements.

The Criminal Intelligence Branch is the branch which collects and stores information about known and important criminals - their move­ments, habits and associates.

The branch is also responsible for supplying all the back-up serv­ices required by detectives working in the field, including the Laboratory liaison staff. It also has an equipment unit which develops and operates technical aids used by police.

The Metropolitan and City Police Company Fraud Department, more commonly known as the Fraud Squad, is staffed by officers from both forces and was formed in 1946 with the sole object of dealing with complex and protracted fraud cases.

Its investigations mainly concern limited companies, banks and businesses specialising in money investment at home and abroad and dealings in shares and securities. A sign of the times is that the Fraud Squad now has the national responsibility of keeping records on cor­ruption in public life.

Fraud Squad investigations can take detectives to different parts of the world and at any one time the squad is concerned with several hundred criminal allegations involving in excess of £250 million.

The Special Branch was formed in 1883 under the title of Special Irish Branch. Its activities were concerned with investigating Fenian bombings and the Fenians themselves, who were Irish terrorists op­erating in London and the provinces. The word ‘Irish’ was dropped from the name three years later and the Special Branch’s scope was widened to include providing personal protection and involvement in matters of national security.

The Anti-Terrorist Branch was formed because of terrorist ac­tivities in London. Detectives from the branch are involved in the dangerous work of investigating acts of terrorism and politically mo­tivated crime in the Metropolitan area. The Anti-Terrorist Branch was bom from the Bomb Squad, itself formed out of necessity in 1971 when London became a target for the anarchist bombers of the Angry Brigade.

Attached to this Branch are the civilian explosives officers, who have the dangerous task of dealing with suspect devices.

The International Criminal Police Organisation, better known sim­ply as Interpol, has the role of communication between the police forces of over 100 countries and the Interpol office at the Yard is equipped with the most modem radio equipment. The Metropolitan Police has men permanently stationed at Interpol’s Headquarters in Paris.

No modern CID can work without the help of the scientists. The Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory provides the de­tectives of the force with the expertise of highly qualified scientists working in the Laboratory’s five basic areas - Biology, Chemistry, Photography, Documents and Firearms.

The Laboratory also analyses specimens sent in from the Home Counties’ police forces and can provide the conclusive piece of evi­dence to secure a conviction. Conversely, it can often eliminate a suspect from a case and establish his or her innocence.