British offer civilians chance to investigate crimes

On television and in novels, amateur detectives solve lots of murders. Now, it seems, the British appear to be offering so-called "civilians" a chance to do it in real life.

From the Daily Telegraph:

Apparently training is required. But if the program were to be adopted here, perhaps some number of hours of watching CSI, or "Murder She Wrote" could be substituted.

"Police leaders and politicians have voiced their concern after discovering that some of the “civilian investigators” have come from jobs at supermarkets like Tesco and Marks & Spencer, or straight from college, having received as little as six months training.

The Daily Telegraph understands that hundreds of the civilian detectives are being used in half of all the 43 forces in England in Wales, carrying out inquiries into murders, rapes, burglaries, robberies, fraud, assaults and vehicle crime.

You can read the full story on the Telegraph's web site.