When you spend half your adult life in one profession you assimilate its quirks like oxygen. Every walk of life has its TLAs (three letter acronyms), shorthand, slang and structures that after a while – quite a short while actually – you take for granted.
When I’m giving crime fiction advice to authors, be they international best sellers, novice crime writers or those in between, it reminds me how indoctrinated I have become.
The greasy pole
Let’s take one notable area that causes more confusion than others – rank.
Despite efforts by Sir Patrick Sheehy in the 1990s, the police rank structure has pretty much remained intact for over half a century and it looks like this.
Or if you are basing your crime novel in the Metropolitan Police, like this.
The City of London, who police the historic square mile, mirrors the Met but with deputy assistant commissioner and deputy commissioner removed.
It can be confusing but, pictorially, I think you’ll agree it’s fairly straightforward – or is that just me and my thirty years of policing speaking?
Where's the problem Then?
So, that’s how the structure is, so where do crime writers trip up? Well, the most common faux pas is the assumption that appointment as a detective is a promotion. Have another look at the charts.
Do you see the word ‘detective’ alongside any rank?
No?
Correct. You don’t!
When I became a detective constable in 1990, make no mistake, none of my former uniformed colleagues deferred to me in any way whatsoever. Far from it. In fact, I became target of their ridicule over my shiny Marks and Spencer suits and becoming an ‘Olympic Torch’ (never goes out) being particular Achille’s heals. And if I ever tried to tell a uniformed sergeant or inspector what to do, well I’m not sure even today’s plastic surgery would have been able to repair the damage.
When an officer is appointed a detective, all it means is they are moving to a specialism and the ‘d’ prefix merely denotes that. The rank is the suffix and mirrors, exactly, that of uniformed colleagues.
Rungs of the Ladder
Promotions to sergeant and inspector are awarded once the candidate has passed the relevant exam and then, in the main, passed competitive selection procedures.
Elevation to chief inspector up to chief superintendent does not require an exam; just the bun fight between competitors. Beyond that it’s bewilderingly complicated and, in my view, inefficient, but I won’t bore you with that just now.
So, you’ll see why I wince when some crime writers hand out promotions as a reward for a job well done. It simply doesn’t happen and, if it did, I’d never have reached the dizzy heights of chief superintendent.
It doesn’t hurt to lock up a maniacal serial killer or uncover government-level corruption, but that ain’t going to get you pips or a crown.
So, now we’ve established the order of things, who does what?
All the Same at Heart
Let’s first clarify that police officers of all ranks hold the Office of Constable.
This ‘Office’ provides them directly with legal powers of arrest and control, by a sworn oath and warrant. These are not delegated powers simply because they have been employed as an officer and officers are not employees. They are not agents of the police force, police authority or government. Those who hold the ‘Office’ are servants of the Crown and is an independent legal official with personal liability for their actions or inaction.
This is important as a great deal of legislation provides powers to ‘a constable.’ That means every officer at every rank, otherwise officers would be stripped of some very useful powers on promotion.
To note as well, because of their unique status, police officers cannot be made redundant nor are they allowed to take any form of industrial action.
Jobs for the Girls and Boys
Now we know what makes a police officer, what about those ranks? A health warning here, I could have gone on for pages on each one, but you have better things to do so, here’s a precis specially for crime writers.
Constable
With a few exceptions, this is the entry rank and they do all the hard work. Roles can include response, neighbourhood policing, detective, roads policing, firearms and many other specialisms. This is the first of the ‘federated’ ranks (PC to chief inspector) and is represented by the local and national Police Federation.
In crime investigations, they are the people who will generally be out on the ground speaking with witnesses, searching houses, arresting and interviewing suspects. The exciting stuff.
Most are highly trained for their roles, often more so than their bosses. That’s why it’s important for crime novelists not to conflate rank with expertise.
I refer you to the point I made earlier regarding the rank I achieved!
Sergeant
Sergeants are the first level of line management in policing and carry an important role in ensuring effective daily supervision, guidance and support of officers and staff. They will co-ordinate, monitor and, where necessary, respond to front line policing activity. This includes running teams of detectives in CID or on murder enquires.
It was one of my favourite ranks as I could remain operational yet pick and choose what I dealt with. Sergeants can do everything a constable does and is usually the most senior rank that will interview suspects. Please remember that point!
Custody sergeants are the Gods of the cell blocks and their decisions can only be overturned by a superintendent or above. You can imagine how that goes down sometimes.
This is also the last rank that officers get paid for working overtime. After sergeant, they do it for love!
Inspector
Inspectors manage teams of sergeants, constables and police staff and/or portfolios. They are often the senior operational officer or detective on duty and carry huge responsibility for anything that happens on their watch. They direct the response to crimes and incidents, including critical incidents.
In murder enquiries they will often be the deputy senior investigating officer (SIO) and will stand in for the SIO in their absence. As they need to be right across the whole enquiry, they will rarely interview suspects or witnesses but, and it’s a big but, when I’m providing crime fiction advice, I will let you stretch to this if you convince me they can’t be a sergeant. But I’m no pushover!
This is the first of the command ranks. They have quite wide spans of control, often large geographic areas (a town or district) or complex specialist functions. They tactically command firearms and public order operations in some forces and, in murder enquiries, are the senior investigating officer. That means they have total operational responsibility, and accountability, for the conduct, direction and outcome of the investigation but rarely see any action firsthand.
My personal view is that it’s the most underpaid and unloved rank in the whole structure. Their salaries are not much higher than an inspector but their responsibilities are more akin to superintendents, who earn much much more.
Superintendent
Superintendents lead a large and/or complex area of command within forces and sometimes across multiple forces, carrying responsibility for most activities in their area. For example, they may head the Major Crime Investigation Team that your murder detectives will come from.
They play a critical lead role in operational policing for major events or incidents.
In very complex or high-profile murders, they may be the SIO, but generally they should not be your protagonist if you want that person to be out doing all the exciting parts of policing. They don’t get much fresh air.
Like chief inspectors, they tactically, and sometimes strategically, command firearms and public order operations in some forces.
They are represented by the Superintendents’ Association and their salaries, and thus pensions, ramp up on promotion.
Their role is very similar to superintendent but scaled up.
For example, they might have complete responsibility for the policing of a whole county or borough within multi-county/ borough forces, run huge multi-force functions like Major Crime Investigation Teams, Organised Crime or Counter Terrorism Units.
Just a point, be careful how your fictional officers address one another; there are formal and informal rules. This blog should lift the veil for you.
Earning your Spurs
I should say, not least because I was one, that no one reaches senior rank without proving their operational competence commensurate to that level.
Of course, they need to be excellent organisational and people leaders, but in the highest stakes operations it’s these people who step up and take the lead, and the flak if it goes wrong.
Some crime writers portray them as bumbling, out of touch, number-crunching fools. They are not – I promise. They’ve worked their way up and dealt with all sorts of horrors on the way. They really do know their stuff.
This is why, despite some great people have been appointed, I’m sceptical of the direct entry schemes that allow people to join as inspectors or superintendents. I earned my skills and credibility on the way up; I’m not sure how you do the job without that background.
As a crime writer, you commit an unforgivable sin if you portray uniformed officers as being, slow, lazy or inept. Some are, as are some detectives, but if you take nothing away from these ramblings than this, reports suggest that as few as 5% of applicants are successful in joining the police.
One Last Crucial Point
As a crime writer, you commit an unforgivable sin if you portray uniformed officers as being, slow, lazy or inept. Some are, as are some detectives, but if you take nothing away from these ramblings than this, reports suggest that as few as 5% of applicants are successful in joining the police.
The selection procedure and probationary period are stringent and will find out those not up to the job. In almost every case, uniformed officers are the bravest, hardest-working, most flexible and innovative people on the planet.
Please do them justice and portray them as such.
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Take care and happy writing.
