AN unprecedented number of murders in Gwent this year could see the force hire detectives on “zero hour” style contracts to cope with demand.

Gwent Police chief constable Mark Hobrough said the force would normally see between two or three murders a year but in less than a year has launched 11 murder probes.

As a result it has had to fund record amounts of overtime payments and, at times, has had to take neighbourhood officers away from community policing duties to support its major investigations.

The 1,535 officer strong force is considering hiring detectives on “zero hours” style contracts to support some of its major investigations if the scale of demand continues next year, said Mr Hobrough.

Unprecedent demand on detectives

Addressing Monmouthshire councillors the chief constable said the other Welsh chief constables have contacted him in light of the “unprecedented” demand and he said: “We’ve had to spend a lot on overtime. It’s an unprecedented amount and unplanned and we’ve got to look after the wellbeing of 1,535 police officers, we’re not a big force.”

In anticipation of there being any similar demand next year the chief constable said he is considering cheaper alternatives to support investigations.

“We’re looking at alternatives and I’ve got an assistant chief constable looking at an almost zero hours type situation to conduct interviews or specialist investigations outside of Gwent Police’s natural boundaries as a cheaper option but that has to be of the same quality. We haven’t got a finished product but do not want risk burnout and looking at the same individuals.”

He laid bare the scale of demand on the force when he attended Monmouthshire County Council’s public services scrutiny committee meeting.

“In the last 10 months Gwent Police has had 11 murders, for a force that would normally have two to three year, that is a huge extraction for officers,” said Mr Hobrough.

No link between murders

He said there was no link between the incidents and said there are varying factors: “Those range from organised crime, mental health, substance misuse and domestic violence and there have been different modus operandi and weapons. There is no correlation between them at all.”

He reminded councillors two of the murder investigations are of deaths in Monmouthshire while he said an investigation into a death in Pontypool in Torfaen in August, linked to suspected biker gang violence had resulted in entries on the Holmes database, used for serious and complex crime investigations, increasing by 60 per cent more than any previous Gwent incident.

Police had made 45 arrests and have had to protect 55 scenes linked to the Pontypool murder investigation said Mr Hobrough.

He acknowledged while neighbourhood officers had been “extradited” in response to the major demands during the first half of this year it is still at an “incredibly low” level.

Mr Hobrough said: “It’s absolutely what we don’t want. Historically it used to be the go to for community officers to staff response cars in a shortage, that isn’t the case now.”

The force is inspected on any diversion, or extraction of its neighbourhood officers from their regular duties with figures published by the inspectorate: “It’s something we talk about on an almost daily basis and needs to be to an absolute minimum and is not a go to position.”