Home | Press | Publications | What We Do | Who We Are | Search | Site Map | Contacts | Links
Publications

What We Do Police HMIC

< Previous | Contents | Next >

The Fingerprint Bureau: Primary Inspection 2000

4. People Management

4.1 Recruitment

4.1.1 HMIC found that the historic difficulty in attracting fingerprint experts to the SCRO fingerprint bureau continues. The bureau currently has vacancies for seven experts under the recognised authorised establishment (six full-time posts and one part-time). Advertisements of these vacancies were placed in the Police Review magazine and sent to every fingerprint bureau in the UK, Channel Islands and Eire. This proved unsuccessful. However, the initiative in placing the same advertisements on the Internet has resulted in some success and two experts were recruited in January and May 2000.

4.1.2 The finance available to pay the salaries for the unfilled posts is currently being spent on overtime payments to existing staff, which is clearly not the ideal solution to the problem. Long hours in a field of work, which demands high levels of concentration and focus, present a risk of tiredness and the potential for mistakes.

4.1.3 In addition to the placing of advertisements, two police officer fingerprint experts who retired recently have been asked to consider returning on short-term contracts and management are overtly trying to recruit staff from other fingerprint bureaux.

4.1.4 There is currently one expert working on a job share (which) basis and the advertisements have highlighted that experts who wish to work part-time would be welcomed.

4.1.5 In another move to increase expert availability, sixteen tenprint identification officers were recruited in 1999 and this has released four experts from Livescan duties.

4.1.6 Six clerical staff have also been employed on a temporary basis to undertake filing and general administrative duties which expert staff were having to do previously. The recurring need to take on this temporary support is indicative of the basic staff shortages.

4.1.7 Two qualified fingerprint experts recruited by SCRO during the early part of 2000 following the internet advertisement are the first two qualified experts to have been recruited into the SCRO bureau. All other expert staff having been trained within the bureau. HMIC regards this as an important step for SCRO and supports the continuing efforts to attract qualified staff. This not only addresses the existing staff shortage but also introduces new experience from outside SCRO.

4.2 Retention of Staff

4.2.1 Figure 10 below shows the position in respect of staff retention at SCRO over the five year period 1995 - 1999/2000:

Figure 10: No. of Fingerprint Experts at SCRO

* Figures include a job share fingerprint expert. For the purpose of Figure 2 the 0.5 post above has been recorded as one expert.

4.3 Job Descriptions

4.3.1 Job Descriptions exist in respect of all posts related to the SCRO Fingerprint Bureau. Some of these now need updating to reflect changes last year to the SCRO committee structure.

4.4 Salary grading

4.4.1 A review of salary grading for fingerprint experts at SCRO took place following a recommendation in the independent consultants' Stage One Report in June 1998 where it was noted that the grading and salaries of fingerprint experts at SCRO had "diverged from the market rates." A review of the salary grading for fingerprint experts took place in 1999, taking cognisance of the grades and salaries of fingerprint experts in Scottish police forces and elsewhere in the UK. Regrading of the SCRO fingerprint experts was approved in 1999 to prevent a continuing drain of expertise to other bureaux where experts were receiving higher grading and salaries.

4.5 Working Environment

4.5.1 HMIC found that the current working conditions within the SCRO Fingerprint Bureau are less than ideal in terms of space and facilities. The AFR terminals are located within their own environment with a small number of staff. In the AFR room, workspace is adequate and conditions are generally good. The main bureau however consists of one large room which provides both storage space for the manual fingerprint collection and the main working area for staff. The room has been partitioned into small working areas for each team but privacy is limited and the atmosphere is still one of working in a large and very busy open plan office.

4.5.2 This is not conducive to the nature of fingerprint comparison work, which requires concentration and focus. It is not unique however and some of the largest bureaux in England and Wales operate in similar conditions. In some European fingerprint bureaux, experts have their own offices and personal computers with access to their national automatic fingerprint recognition (AFR) system available through their personal computer in some instances. SCRO experts are aware of this and senior experts from SCRO have travelled to overseas bureaux to observe developments there. Due to limited resources such a development in Scotland is likely to be some way off. However, the move to new premises at Pacific Quay planned for September 2000 will provide staff in the SCRO fingerprint bureau with much better working conditions in terms of personal space, quality of light and general working environment. This opportunity should be taken to create operating standards in consultation with the staff.

4.6 Internal Meetings and Consultation

4.6.1 Internal communication between SCRO fingerprint bureau staff, as a result of internal meetings and consultation, appeared effective. While some experts questioned how much their views were valued, their views were sought and a briefing process was in place involving team leaders. Weekly meetings take place between the head of the bureau and team leaders and information from these meetings is passed down. There is a briefing file maintained by the team leaders to which all members had access. Where staff were not available to attend the meeting they were updated individually at a later date.

4.6.2 The head of the bureau (chief inspector) is in constant daily contact with bureau staff. He was very aware of the need for keeping staff informed especially during such a period of high pressure in terms of both workload and external scrutiny. Staff spoke positively about his commitment and "open door policy" in this respect.

4.7 Sickness Absence Management

4.7.1 In 1998 the sickness level within the SCRO Fingerprint Bureau was reported to be 5.5%, ie 5.5% of total available working days lost due to sickness. This was described by SCRO management at the time as a 'crisis' in staffing terms and a high level of sickness absence was seen as both a symptom of and a contributing factor to the situation which prevailed at that time.

4.7.2 Sickness absence within SCRO is managed in accordance with the sickness absence management policy of Strathclyde Police. HMIC noted that a copy of the policy was displayed on a notice board within the Fingerprint Bureau to which staff would have access. In discussion of the subject, the chief inspector responsible for its implementation displayed sound knowledge of its principles and the procedures involved.

4.7.3 HMIC was informed that, although the chief inspector maintains an awareness of the absence levels prevailing at any given time, the monitoring of trends is not possible. This is because there is no management information readily available which would highlight such trends. In a department where sickness absence and work related stress and other illness has been a concern HMIC believes this to be an unacceptable situation.

4.7.4 The collation of all information relating to sickness absence within SCRO is currently undertaken by staff within the Personnel Department of Strathclyde Police. Although some figures are produced in respect of sickness absence within SCRO as a whole, no breakdown is provided in respect of its constituent departments. Specific requests for this information in the past have been unsuccessful on the grounds of resource availability.

4.7.5 At the time of the inspection, the full time secretary for SCRO was on long term sick leave. This had resulted in the only other member of administrative support staff doing the secretary's job and a temporary member of staff being brought in to back fill that post.

4.7.6 Two other members of staff, both fingerprint experts were also on long term sick leave. Two other fingerprint experts, although working, had 'soul and conscience reports' excusing them from giving evidence at court due to stress. Another expert had been removed from scene of crime work due to failing eyesight.

4.7.7 While management offered the optimistic view that sickness absence had improved since 1998 there was no evidence to support this assertion. Recent figures relating to SCRO as a whole showed a worsening trend.

4.7.8 HMIC acknowledges the lack of administrative support within SCRO and its heavy reliance upon Strathclyde Police for many support services including personnel and administrative support. HMIC recommends that action is taken to secure data which informs management of sickness absence levels in a manner which can be used to monitor trends, set targets and manage sickness absence.

4.8 Occupational Health, Health and Safety and Welfare

4.8.1 An occupational health and welfare service is currently provided to SCRO staff by Strathclyde Police.

4.8.2 It was noted in the course of this inspection that stress-related illness was not unusual as the cause of sickness absence among staff in fingerprint bureaux and scenes of crime departments throughout Scotland. While the potential for scenes of crime officers to be affected by the sometimes harrowing nature of their work at major crime scenes might be more evident than the potential for stress among fingerprint experts who are office bound, consideration needs to be given to the experts' situation. The volume of cases, the serious nature of many cases, the painstaking nature of fingerprint work, the pressures resulting from the strength of fingerprint evidence and the presentation of such evidence in court all combine to make the expert role as potentially stressful as that of other crime related posts. HMIC recommends that a strategy is introduced for staff within all fingerprint bureaux and identification branches to offer staff support and to assist in the detection and prevention of stress related illness resulting in absence from work.

< Previous | Contents | Next >

The information contained on this WWW site is Crown Copyright but may be reproduced without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use. Privacy and Content Disclaimer.

For general enquiries about this web site email ceu@scotland.gov.uk or fill out our online questionnaire.