Have an inkling that Southern American inspectors are less protected (7)
I believe the answer is:
suspect
'have an inkling' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'southern american inspectors are less protected' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'southern' could be 's' (abbreviation) and 's' is present in the answer.
'american' could be 'us' (United States) and 'us' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'that' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for suspect that I've seen before include "one on bail, perhaps" , "Believe (something) possible or probable" , "Distrust, have doubts about" , "One thought to have committed crime" , "Possible perpetrator of a crime" .)