When a police inspector's nearly there, it's a bother (6)
I believe the answer is:
dither
'a bother' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'when a police inspector's nearly there it's' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'when' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is found in the answer.
'inspector' could be 'di' (detective inspector) and 'di' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dither that I've seen before include "Be indecisive, hesitate" , "Hesitates, be indecisive" , "Be in two minds" , "Waver, vacillate" , "Stew" .)