Police to get Facebook training

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Crime fighters will soon benefit from improvements to their training which will cover how to gather evidence from mobile phones and computers and track down suspects via social media.

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said it has launched the initiative in order to make detective training more relevant to the challenges of modern policing.

Around 3,500 students who take the NPIA's Initial Crime Investigators Development Programme each year will benefit from the improvements.

According to the NPIA, the updated training exercises will teach students how best to gather evidence from technology such as computers, mobile phones, CCTV, Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras and National Footwear Reference Collection images as well as financial data such as bank statements and use of cash machines.

Chief executive of NPIA, deputy chief constable Nick Gargan, said the improvements were necessary to give detectives the requisite skills to tackle the “challenges and complexities of modern policing”.

"This programme is a vital part of the career pathway for detectives and the new training covers sensitive areas of policing where limited guidance existed previously."

"The changes underline the importance to having a national agency to provide guidance and train detectives to a single high standard so they can work on investigations in any part of the country and give their colleagues and the public the best quality service in fighting crime."

The police force is often criticised for being woefully under-resourced when it comes to investigating online fraud and hi-tech crime.

In June it was revealed that the Met Police’s Police Central e-Crime Unit is to have its funding slashed by 30 per cent as part of Home Office cuts.

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