Ian Cherrington

I don't know the exact figures, but over time it's become more difficult.

And also what I noticed a little bit too was that a lot of uniformed officers, guys in uniform, stopped wanting to be detectives.

And this is a kind of combination of things from austerity cuts and numbers of officers and things like that.

But I think what uniformed officers worked out, or some of them, was that

your shift would end and then a new kind of shift would come in behind you 24-7.

So you'd go home roughly on time unless there was a major.

Whereas detectives seem to just sort of carry on regardless.

Yeah.

See many, many...

People sleep under their desks and, you know, I mean, as a boss, you know, as in a, you know, a detective, I used to have to tell people to go home.

Sometimes I'd walk in, I couldn't work out if they'd been at home or not.

Under your desk.

Yeah.

I tried really hard as I became more senior to set an example and make sure I went home.

Because it never stops.

You could easily work 24-7.

But I think that puts people off because it's hard to have any life balance, isn't it, when it's like that?

Yeah.

Part of the problem is I think you can do that when you're young, but if you have a family or you're older and you've got other commitments, it's very difficult.

And so I think in terms of trying to recruit and things like that, you know, it feels like that's one of the things you need to focus on a little bit more is to make it more palatable.