Online training for UK detectives

E-learning courses for trainee detectives in the UK will be provided so as to teach the newest members of the police force to track down criminals on social media networks and to gather information from mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices.

Acting chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency Deputy Chief Constable Nick Gargan called the enhanced online training courses a "vital part of the career pathway", which covers "sensitive areas of policing where limited guidance existed previously".

Furthermore, because the new programme can be delivered either on the web or in modular format, it is both more flexible and cost effective. Other changes include techniques regarding the interviewing of victims and witnesses, guidance on how to use print and broadcast media effectively to appeal for information and encouraging the development of systematic approaches to investigations.

One local police force in North Yorkshire have already made use of Facebook to help solve crime by posting images of stolen property on the site to reunite burglary victims with the recovered loot.