One replied to the original comment: “Could it be he was undercover at the time as a PC or DC? As that would explain for the lack of Sergeant Stripes.
“Adding to this theory he is wearing a police jacket like a PC would wear as it is very rare for a detective to be wearing one of those in the show,” they said.
But someone else disagreed: “Steve’s way too scrappy for undercover work – last time they left him unsupervised he f****d a witness and messed about with Lindsey. Would be an interesting twist for this season though!”
Another did some more digging: “I have just looked it up and that’s not Steve’s collar numbers as his ones are 1561 and the one is the photo is 3947,” begging the question as to whether this is even his vest.