The SAPS has a shortage of forensic psychologists and it is hurting the police's crime-fighting ability, analysts say.Last week the police's top profiler, Brigadier Gérard Labusch-agne, resigned from the service's investigative psychology section, which analysts believe leaves a void in the unit.There are now only two police forensic psychologists left in the SAPS, sources say.The problem, Labuschagne said, was that his unit had difficulty retaining forensic psychologists.The reason was poor pay, in particular because the SAPS had not implemented an occupation-specific dispensation like other government departments had.Labuschagne said that forensic psychologists earned R10000 less than their peers in other departments and this contributed to a brain drain.Forensic psychologist Gaida Del Fabbro explained that another reason the SAPS had difficulty in getting specialised psychologists was that local universities didn't offer courses in forensic psychology. To go into the discipline, she said, students had to specialise through workshops, mentorship or on-the-job training.Criminologist Rudolph Zinn said studies had shown that heavy case- loads meant that forensic psychologists could focus only on catching serial offenders."There is just a small number of forensic psychologists to support 24000 detectives," he said.Del Fabbro said psychological profilers could assist in investigating other crimes, or even be used in picking up patterns in other crime categories like housebreaking or hijackings.The police had by yesterday not replied to questions sent to them last week about the forensic psychologist shortage.Zinn added that another shortcoming of the South African system was that overworked forensic psychologists didn't have the capacity to conduct audits after an offender was caught and the case closed.Such audits, he said, could pick up additional cases linked to the criminal."Forensic psychologists don't have the luxury to go back and look at cases," Zinn said.He pointed to the UK, where the Metropolitan police have developed an effective way of using forensic psychologists in fighting crime.They have, he said, a database of experts from around the world which they can draw on to assist in an investigation...