Security firm looking to hire ex-cops

The sun sets behind the Olympic stadium before the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Photo / AP

The private firm at the centre of the Olympics security shambles is looking to hire former police officers as civilian investigators to work on sensitive cases.

G4S Policing Solutions, part of G4S, is advertising on the firm's website for "civilian investigators" to "assist detectives by carrying out vital tasks such as taking statements and retrieving CCTV footage".

Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "Domestic security must be undertaken by public servants - men and women who are fully trained and accountable for their actions. This is what the public want and what the public deserve. Privatisation of policing provides no benefit to the public, delivers a detrimental service to local communities and arguably, if the police then end up stepping in again when private firms fail to deliver, an additional cost to the taxpayer."

Policing Minister Nick Herbert has denied private firms will be involved in police patrols and said in March that any suggestion that forces looking to use private firms in their work represented the privatisation of policing was "mischievous and misguided".

- Independent

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