SWINDON need to find an extra nine local crime investigators in Swindon alone.

The force has 15 vacancies for the roles across the county, with the majority in Swindon. LCIs are not police officers, but staff members trained to investigate crimes, interview suspects and sift through data.

Wiltshire Police says a new cohort of student LCIs will soon take up posts and it is developing innovative ways to increase capacity for investigating crimes.

The comments came as a police watchdog said failures by forces to plan early to meet demand was putting public safety at risk. In its State of Policing report, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services also warned police forces nationally had 17 per cent fewer investigators than they needed, despite work by chiefs to reverse the problem.

The report said: “Forces need to take more action, working with the National Police Chiefs Council lead on investigative resilience, to make sure they have enough investigative capacity.”

In Wiltshire, there are around 10 per cent fewer investigators than are needed, HMICFRS said.

Reports shared with the Wiltshire Police and Crime Panel yesterday show nine local crime investigator vacancies in Swindon community policing teams out of 15 across the county.

Last year, the force saw an 11 per cent jump in the number of crimes reported to them. According to the latest inspection by the HMICFRS, just eight per cent of recorded Wiltshire crimes resulted in a charge or court summons in the 12 months to June 2017.

Asst Ch Con Craig Holden said: “It has been recognised nationally that there is a shortfall in trained detectives across the police service.

“Wiltshire Police has been working hard over the past two years to try and buck the national trend. We have developed a number of innovative responses to increase the number of trained detectives and police staff investigators across our CID teams and our community policing teams.”

He said these measures had been successful, but added that the force was not complacent and would continue to strengthen investigative staff numbers.

Wiltshire Police’s low outcome rate - which includes convictions - compared to other forces was partly explained by the county’s strong track record on logging crimes, Asst Ch Const Holden said.

Angus Macpherson, police and crime commissioner, lent his weight to national recruitment schemes to turn members of the public into trained detectives in just 12 weeks.

He said of the Police Now scheme, which has been criticised by police unions: “I fully support the government’s proposals to diversify detective recruitment by introducing a graduate scheme to fast-track applicants. Whilst it is important that this is managed carefully it reflects our approach in Wiltshire to ensure that our policing family is more diverse and representative of the communities it serves.”