Twitter enlisted as detectives' aid

Officers in charge of police education say sweeping changes are being made to training for thousands of student investigators to bring their work into the 21st century.

These include tracking suspects through social networking sites as wanted people may reveal valuable clues unintentionally online, they say.

Updated exercises also examine how to gather the information from computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices most effectively.

Senior officers have been forced to keep pace with the rapidly evolving online world to gather intelligence on suspects from street gangs to fraudsters.

Deputy chief constable Nick Gargan, acting head of the National Policing Improvement Agency, said change was crucial.

"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," he explained.