Bob Dylan certainly expressed his views on how times were changing back in the mid 1960’s and this is certainly true in today’s landscape.

Let’s put aside the unprecedented circumstances affecting the world, the evolution of technology has been at pace and it’s often felt that we have not adapted to these advancements.

I first began my career in investigations in 1988, when training was in a large classroom with flip-charts and folders, delivered by a grizzled experienced investigator telling us all ‘how it was’ in the real world.

Computers were a rarity and slow, no internet readily available back then, and were usually the size of a small, family bungalow!

When we did have access to, what we thought at the time, was technical wizardry, we wanted to tell the world how advanced we were. This photo, to the left, was taken in 1998 when I worked for the Metropolitan Police and we were trialling the Bumblebee Analysis System (I’m sure many ex and serving Met cops remember Operation Bumblebee!).Fast-forward to the 2000’s and I was still conducting interviews face-to-face and with a pen and paper and my training was still in a classroom, only this time it had PowerPoint! Wow!

But technology progressed, even if it felt like I hadn’t, and virtual platforms came along (Zoom, Skype, and many others) that have the potential for real interaction with people, face-to-face, across oceans and deserts, but via a computer screen.

The professional investigator can conduct interviews without the challenges of mutually convenient days, times, and trainers can host virtual classrooms whilst still delivering a professional course.

It’s something that I am now learning to embrace and drives my organisations online services, TCM Online, to all clients and it’s something that will come from this terrible time for many as a way for businesses to continue.

The time’s they are a changing.