YNOT EUROPE – With social networking all the rage online, it should come as no surprise that law enforcement agencies have latched on to the phenomenon as a way to keep tabs on “people of interest” to investigations.

What may be surprising, though, is that it has taken them so long to catch on to the notion that almost anything one cares to know about another may be found somewhere on the web. More significant: Online social networks have become such a staple of modern life, even criminals are addicted.

And evidently some are simply too brash to believe tweeting their escapades could lead to their incarceration.

With that in mind, 2011’s crop of about 3,500 detective trainees in the UK will receive formal instruction about how to mine Twitter and Facebook not only for clues criminals themselves leave, but also for the identities of witnesses who may be reluctant to come forward in the real world.

“It’s a way of tracking down criminals,” a spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency told the Associated Press. “Finding the sort of people they’ve contacted and the sort of groups they’re a member of.”

The new training, available beginning in January, also will include basic computer and cell phone forensics.