POLICE in Gloucestershire are set to team up with forces from Avon & Somerset and Wiltshire in a collaboration to improve the way major crimes such as murder and corporate manslaughter are investigated.

The new Brunel Major Crime Collaboration will see homicide investigations coordinated across all three forces for the first time, with senior officers promising improved services.

Gloucestershire’s 30 major crime staff will, on December 1, be joining the 113 from Avon & Somerset and 34 from Wiltshire, already in the Brunel Collaboration.

The forces have assured the public that response times will be unaffected by the collaboration and other specialist crime units, such as CID and the Public Protection Bureau will also be unaffected.

The team will be taking on all categories of murder as well as corporate and gross negligence manslaughter and, where capacity allows, major crimes that could pose a significant risk to public confidence.

Lead officer for the Brunel collaboration Detective Superintendent Andy Bevan said: “These are the most serious crimes that often need the most significant resources.

“Loved ones deserve no less than the most thorough investigation possible and the public quite rightly demand justice.

“The two-force collaboration has already proved a great success and with Gloucestershire joining I’m confident the service we deliver is going to get even better.

“Working together gives us greater capacity and flexibility to investigate major crime but it will also lead to innovation and higher standards of investigation. Learning from each other in this field of work can often yield great benefits.

“Locally, as Gloucestershire has seen in recent years, murder rates can fluctuate quite dramatically but regionally they are traditionally flat, which means investigating at that regional level makes absolute sense.

“We’re looking forward to working together as one team and can reassure the public that wherever major crime takes place in the region they can be confident in us to carry out the best possible investigation.”

Senior responsible officer for the project, Gloucestershire Assistant Chief Constable Richard Berry said: “In this time of austerity this collaboration represents a much smarter way of working.

“The sharing of resources will improve the quality of our investigations but also result in real savings, so it’s a win-win situation.

“Gloucestershire is joining an already successful collaboration and major crime is now investigated regionally in most areas of the country so people should be reassured that the evidence this works is already there.

“The officers and staff we have in this area are the most highly trained professionals and I’d like to thank them for their support in this development and their continued dedication to their roles.”