Slashdot Mirror
UK Police To Get Facebook Lessons
jhernik writes "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. '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.'"
This is completely pointless in criminal terms. The UK is already the greatest "monitoring" state in the history of the world, especially London. They don't bother to look at the videos or computer data for ordinary crime, such as stolen luggage, ordinary street crimes, or even rape. They're not competent enough or organized to connect the dots and actually track a suspect, despite what you may see on Torchwood. Its "criminal" use is for what are really civil offenses: leaving your garbage cans out too late, leaving your pub open too late, or carrying tools to your car and leaving for the day when you're on medical disability.
There's a reason that "1984" was set in England: they've been like this for a long time. And there's a reason why "Brazil" is so funny and terrifying at the same time if you're from England. I had never realized that an incompetent police state could be so much scarier than a competent one until I tried living in England and registering a car.