Officers have been freed up by a new approach to investigating � but will it be a success? By Lucy Adams. (Includes video)

CRIME number CF0171330508 is meaningless to the population at large. It relates to the theft of a woman's purse. In the past it would have been relevant only to the insurance company, the victim and, for a fleeting moment, the busy uniformed officer sent to investigate.

Under a radical new pilot project, however, it has been made a priority, but the team investigating it are not police officers but civilians.

The purse belonged to Annie Baxter, 55, who has lived in the flat in Falkirk for 17 years and knows the neighbours so well she leaves the front door open while she cleans the close, puts out washing and tends to her window boxes. She was downstairs sweeping the close when her purse was stolen from her kitchen worktop on May 22.

"It was horrible and I felt violated," she says. "Inside was a picture of my mother who's now passed away and that had such sentimental value. With hindsight it was stupid to leave the door open and I wouldn't do it again, but I'd done it for 17 years. I searched and searched for it then eventually phoned the police at about midnight.

"I was surprised at how much interest they were taking in it. It was a stolen purse. It was not as if someone had been murdered or the whole house had been burgled. It is all about reassurance and that's what I needed. My partner works offshore and he was away."

The theft is one of 700 crimes in the Falkirk area investigated by civilians since April 1 under a £250,000 initiative funded by the Scottish Government.

Under the scheme, which aims to free up frontline officers and improve service to the public, traditional police duties such as door-to-door inquiries, interviews and crime reports are carried out by trained investigative assistants overseen by police officers.

In the Falkirk Council area, some 50% of the group three and four crimes, which include housebreaking, car theft and vandalism, are now dealt with by the Priority Crime Unit, made up of one detective sergeant, four detective constables, two civilian assistants and eight civilian investigators.

When first mooted, the idea to use civilians to undertake traditional police tasks met with controversy but frontline officers and the police federation have since come round to the idea.

Crimes such as vandalism traditionally have a low clear-up rate, but the pilot has already seen a 5% improvement in detection figures. Could it be that some crimes are better investigated by civilians?

John and Lynne are no Dalziel and Pascoe. They're not police officers for a start and have no power of arrest - but they take the job just as seriously.

They've visited Mrs Baxter three times already and she greets them with the smile of an old friend. The absence of uniforms and titles only seems to complement their friendly approach.

Whether an assault or the theft of a purse, it is still a crime, says John Hughes, who describes himself as the talker on the team and makes good use of his 30 years' experience with Fife Constabulary. "People still get frightened," says the 54-year-old. "There is still fear of crime issues around and about this and support issues. We should spend as much time on a purse as a more serious incident.

"Every crime is serious to the person it's happened to. No matter what anybody else thinks it's what that person thinks that's important. I've always thought that. It's about customer service. It's got to be victim and customer focused or there's no point in doing it. All you're doing otherwise is just running about in fancy suits with a flashing blue light."

Lynne, he explains, is brilliant with the technology side and has given him a completely fresh perspective. Some 24 years his junior, Lynne McAulay worked as a customer relations specialist with the Prudential before taking up the post. Alongside the other civilian investigators she had to pass a three-week training course at police headquarters in Stirling before starting.

"The training was intensive," she explains. "The first week was to do with legislative stuff and processes and procedures. The second week was more about dealing with the public.

"Not having been in the police before it was difficult, but it was really interesting and we got knowledge checks, which were basically exams, to ensure we'd understood everything. We were taught about the way to go about collecting evidence and labelling productions. Then the last week was all about interviewing techniques."

Although the civilian investigators are trained in defence techniques, they neither make arrests nor detain suspects, and so do not carry the equipment of an officer.

"We get given a folder, notebook and radio with a panic button, a torch and a first-aid kit," explains Lynne. "As soon as you arrive at the door not in uniform they assume you're CID, but once you explain about the unit everyone's really positive."

Turning certain police roles into civilian ones is not a new concept in the UK. A report on the Metropolitan Police in 1952 made a range of proposals on "civilianisation". Administrative, forensic and support roles have already been handed over to non-police staff. The question forces have asked increasingly over the past two decades is whether a specific role actually requires the police power of arrest.

However, senior officers warn there are limits. Police community support officers were introduced to England and Wales in 2002 and do not have the power of arrest but can detain suspects for 30 minutes. Scottish forces have thus far rejected the idea of the so-called "plastic plods" but civilian investigators may be the brave new face of policing for certain types of crime.

Updating Mrs Baxter on her case clearly does not require the power of arrest - just old-fashioned people skills. The conversation begins with cats, a love common to the three of them, and moves on to the case.

The woman thought to have stolen the purse returned to put her face to the window last week and they are hoping DNA tests will identify the culprit.

"She was obviously checking if there was anyone in," says Mrs Baxter. "I thought I would have confronted the person who'd taken my purse because I was so angry, but in actual fact my knees went to jelly and I hid behind the kitchen door. I didn't know if she might have a knife on her."

Many of the crimes dealt with by the unit might be seen as lower priority - spray-painted graffiti, shoplifting and minor thefts - but the focus is on the victim rather than the seriousness of the crime.

It is, explains Superintendent Robbie McGregor, the Falkirk area commander, about freeing up the time of frontline officers and improving the service to the "customer".

"The difference is that when investigative assistants rather than uniformed officers are tasked with progressing an inquiry they are not likely to be called away from that to deal with a more urgent inquiry," he says.

"Our experience is that people don't care who is appearing before them. They want to know that there is something being done about their particular crime and that it is being investigated properly, thoroughly. This means the public get a much better quality of service."

For the other forces watching and waiting for the pilot's outcome, early indicators are positive. Since its inception more than two months ago, staff say it has saved 2000 hours of police time. Of the 700 crimes it has dealt with some 180 have been solved and a further 100 are subject to "positive lines of inquiry".

The civilian investigators, who are paid approximately £22,000 a year, are not significantly cheaper than police officers, but the dedicated approach of the unit seems to be more effective.

"From an efficiency point of view we are much better at solving crimes, but what we have tried to do as a unit is focus on customer service and quality of investigation," explains Detective Sergeant Hugh Louden.

"We have to give victims a realistic idea of what we are going to do. Within 14 days we will give them a phone call with an update. Regardless of whether the crime has been solved, people have been very positive about that.

"Generally people are just delighted to have a service. There have been no questions about why there is not a police officer there." Does it matter to Mrs Baxter that the police sent civilians rather than uniform officers to speak to her? Not at all, she says.