Police To Get Facebook Lessons

The police are to receive training on how to use Facebook and Twitter to catch people committing serious crimes. The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) will overhaul its training modules to include sessions on the social networking sites for detectives.

Detective Training

“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,” said deputy chief constable Nick Gargan, acting head of the NPIA, in a statement to the Press Association.

“These improvements are exactly what detectives need to tackle the challenges and complexities of modern policing effectively,” he added. “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.”

Criminals have long been known to be using social networking websites and the police has now recognised that these social networking sites are potential a valuable source of clues.

Social Criminals

For example prisoner Brendan Rawsthorn, from Blackburn, Lancashire, used Facebook to boast of playing computer games, drinking beer and “putting his feet up” all day.

The issue received a great deal of publicity when burglar Craig “Lazie” Lynch escaped from jail and then used Facebook to taunt British police over the Christmas period. Lynch created a Facebook web page in which he bragged about relaxing on a sunbed and eating 12lb steaks. However he was later arrested by police.

But social networking websites are also becoming increasingly used in more serious crimes.

For example in May this year, Zoe Williams, 23, of Chard, Somerset was jailed for three months for breaking into the Facebook account of her ex-boyfriend, who she had accused of rape.

Active Cases

Facebook was also used by Colin Gunn, a double murder plotter who is serving time in a maximum security jail, when he used the website to post threats to his rivals via a smuggled mobile phone. He said that he could not wait to see the fear in people’s eyes when he got home.

And Jade Braithwaite, who killed 16-year-old Ben Kinsella, used Facebook to boast he was “down but not out”. He said he wanted a remote control so he could “mute or delete people when I need to.”

According to the BBC, the police are currently using Facebook to investigate the murder this week of 17-year-old Marvin Henry in north London. This month also saw the jailing of Adam Mann after he killed his ex-wife Lisa Beverley after she taunted him on Facebook.

Honour Killings

It is thought that approximately 3,500 detectives in England and Wales will be trained in the use of social networking websites.

The training course will also include sections on how to record allegations of domestic violence and rape and how to treat suspected ‘honour-based crimes.’ Detectives will be taught to recognise the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder in victims and witnesses to avoid adding to their trauma.

Other training includes a national collection of footprints made by specific shoes as well as how to collect financial information.