Although an SIB appears to have existed in the
British Army of the Rhine in Germany between 1919 and 1926, the origins of the army's SIB are in 1940, when twenty
Scotland Yard detectives were enlisted in the Corps of Military Police to deal with the pilfering of military stores within the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in
France. The unit was formed on the recommendations of Detective
Chief Inspector George Hatherill (who later went on to investigate the serial killers
John Reginald Christie and
John George Haigh, and the
Great Train Robbery) and command was given to Detective
Superintendent Clarence Campion, head of Scotland Yard's
Criminal Record Office, who was commissioned as a
Major. Campion was hit in the head by
shrapnel during the
Dunkirk evacuation and died on 20 May 1940, the only SIB casualty of the BEF. After this beginning, the SIB was established on a full-time basis. One of the first group of detectives, Frank Elliott, was sent out to Cairo, Egypt. Under the supervision of Colonel Claude Harper, Elliott managed a 500-man force which investigated crime in Egypt, Palestine and later Libya. The SIB (RMP) consisted of about three hundred personnel, including
Scenes of Crime Officers and
forensic technicians. It was divided into numbered units called Investigation Platoons (for instance, 33 Inv Pl SIB Regt), which are subdivided into Detachments, each usually commanded by a
Warrant Officer Class 2. There was a section or detachment on most major British Army stations. There was also an
Army Reserve section, made up of
CID officers and ex-regular SIB. The Headquarters SIB Regiment was located at Campion Lines at
Bulford, Wiltshire. Within the RMP, SIB is known as "the Branch" or more commonly "the Feds". In 2006 the SIB was subjected to an inspection by
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). The Armed Forces Bill 2006 seeks to require the SIB to refer investigations into inherently serious crimes directly to the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) rather than to commanding officers. SIB recruit class 1 and 2 Cpl's from the General Police Duties employment group of the
Royal Military Police, and each candidate undergoes 12 months Foundation Training to determine suitability. During training, an extensive testing phase is completed utilizing the Distance Learning Package (DLP), coupled with a series of exams including the entrance exam. Students who pass the entrance exam are eligible for further training on the Serious Crime Investigation Course (SCIC), a 9-week residential course held at the
Defence School of Policing and Guarding, Southwick Park,
Fareham. On completion, successful candidates are placed onto a merit board awaiting full-time employment as an SIB Investigator. Passing the SCIC does not automatically qualify candidates employment with the SIB, and all candidates who were successful in passing the SCIC but unsuitable for employment with the SIB will be returned to their respective unit as a Level 3 trained investigator. ==Royal Air Force Police SIB==