Tuesday, May 23, 2006

New Tricks – Northern Ireland-style

New Tricks cast (C) BBCI wonder if the Northern Ireland-based Historic Enquiries Team are glued to their sofas each Monday night at 9pm to catch the latest episode of New Tricks on BBC1.

New Tricks is a drama series featuring an eccentric bunch of ex-policemen, brought out of retirement to investigate unsolved crimes as part of UCOS (Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad).

Dave Cox and Phillip James of the HET (C) BBCThe Historic Enquiries Team is a unit of the PSNI staffed by an eccentric bunch of ex-policemen, brought out of retirement to investigate unsolved crimes.

That’s a cheap joke - and not true, though every organisation needs a few eccentrics to keep it fresh!

Operationally independent from the PSNI, but reporting to the Chief Constable, HET brings together a review team recruited from police officers from outside Northern Ireland with a locally recruited investigations team.

They are ploughing their way through the 3,269 unsolved murders committed during the Troubles (1968-1998). However, they are falling short of their closure target of 40 cases per month. This still feels faster than the clear up rate of the UCOS team on New Tricks.

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