Criminal Investigation Department

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of all territorial police forces within the British Police, and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.

In 1854, with an increasing amount of detective work to be done, Nottingham Borough Police set up the county's first CID section.

The Metropolitan Police Service CID, the first such organisation, was founded in 1878 by C. E. Howard Vincent. Originally, it was under the direct command of the Home Secretary, but since 1888 has been under the authority of the Commissioner.

CID officers are required to have had at least two years as a uniformed officer before applying to transfer to the branch and receive further training when they do so. While training they are referred to as a Trainee Detective Constable (TDC) and after completing the national Initial Crime Investigators' Development Programme, typically taking around two years, they become a fully fledged Detective Constable (DC). CID officers are involved in investigation of major crimes such as rape, murder, serious assault, fraud, and any other offences that require complex detection They are responsible for acting upon intelligence received and then building a case.

In the United Kingdom, smaller police stations usually have more uniformed officers than CID officers, typically five Detective Constables (DC) with a Detective Sergeant (DS) in overall command. In larger stations many DCs, DSs and Detective Inspectors will be present under the overall responsibility of the Detective Chief Inspector.

Contrary to practice of police forces of many other nations, detectives are not automatically senior to uniformed officers and hold the same ranks. The head of the CID in most police forces is a Detective Chief Superintendent.

These ranks are common to most forces.

As shown above, members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) up to and including the rank of Chief Superintendent prefix their ranks with 'Detective'. Detective ranks being prefixed with a "D" are equivalent to their uniform counterparts. Traditionally the prefix 'Woman' was also placed in front of rank titles (as it was within the uniformed branches) to designate female officers. Although this can sometimes still be seen, especially in historical documents the practice has been obsolete since 1999. Traditionally when an officer joined the CID he or she would do so for life, giving up the opportunity for anything more than a very limited chance of promotion in exchange for the pay and allowances of a detective – and of course the much more interesting and rewarding work within the CID environment. Since the advent of Sheehy Inquiry (where regardless of its initial rejection most recommendations have since been implemented) many officers have found it financially difficult to remain within the CID and have returned to uniformed duties to seek easier promotion. This has had a knock-on effect with fewer and fewer officers opting to train as detectives. Within the UK nationally there is a shortage of trained detectives and police forces can be seen competing with each other for detectives to transfer to them from other forces.

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