Police name change aims to recruit staff

The Metropolitan Police is changing the name of its child abuse
unit because it is struggling to recruit staff of sufficient
quality, it was alleged last week.

The Met has confirmed that its child protection command will change
its name to the child abuse investigation command in September 2004
but denies that it is to tackle recruitment problems.

However, speaking at a conference on the Children Bill last week,
Ian Angus, Met detective inspector on the multi-agency London child
protection committee, said the change had been fuelled by staffing
problems because some officers are under the impression that it is
a protection-focused unit rather than investigative.

“That’s [child abuse] our core business. It’s really an internal
marketing issue – we want to change the perception about what our
core business is,” he added.

Detective chief superintendent, Peter Spindler, head of the command
said the name change was to “better define” what it did. “We don’t
actually protect children, we investigate the crimes against
them.”

He denied the command was having difficulties recruiting but said
he hoped the name change would improve its image and increase
recruitment.