The deputy chair of West Midlands Police Federation fears proposals to force police to recruit detectives directly from business could “set up people to fail”.

Jase Dooley, a detective sergeant, said there was a huge difference between policing and working in wider society, and that beat experience was vital in understanding the role of investigators.

His comments came after Labour said it would make police chiefs recruit detectives directly from business if it won the next General Election.

Under Labour’s proposals, people with experience in fields such as investigating business fraud, child protection or other relevant areas, would be allowed to join as entry-level detectives without having to work as beat officers.

Jase, who has 28 years’ experience in the police, said: “To be a good detective you need to have a good understanding of policing.

“You need to understand the workings of a police officer, what the role is, how we go about investigating crimes, and you need to be experienced in policing.

“If you have someone who is an investigator in the outside world, for instance, their procedures and policies are completely different to those of the police.

“To be a detective you need to have a good working knowledge of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, you need to know the regulations, the policies and the law relating to investigative work.

“You’re going to be putting a lot of pressure on direct-entry detectives who have come from business.

“If they have no background in policing whatsoever they’re going to be put on the back foot and it’s going to be extremely difficult for them.

“I fear we might be setting up people to fail.”

He added: “Years ago, to be a detective you had to be recommended by your peers because you were proven and had an eye for investigative work.

“You had to be of a certain experience or a police officer who was proven on the streets, investigating stuff, talking to the public and talking to the criminals as well, and gaining information from people.

“I’m not criticising, because we’ve had some very good direct entry police officers who are now detectives. Some of them are fantastic, they get it.

“But if we’re talking about putting people straight into a role without on the job experience, it’s a lot of pressure on the individual.”

The Police Foundation think tank estimates there are around 7,000 detective vacancies.

Jase said a big reason was that the workload - which included dealing with incidents that weren’t police matters - was putting people off becoming a detective.

“Crime levels have risen from 10 years ago and the types of crimes are different,” he said.

“It’s my opinion we should have police officers at the point that calls come in to say this is not a police matter, or this is a civil dispute, or it’s something you need to take up with your landlord or your employer.

“But they get crimed and come up here and we have to decide whether we’re going to investigate or not.

“Workloads are going through the roof because of it.

“People joining the job now, or eyeing the job from response and neighbourhood teams look at detectives and see how much work they have and it puts them off.

“We need more staff and the workload needs to be redressed,” he added.