Murder Investigation Team
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Murder Investigation Teams (also known as Major Investigation Teams and abbreviated to MIT) are the specialised homicide squads of London's Metropolitan Police Service. MITs investigate cases of murder, manslaughter, attempted murder where the evidence of intent is unambiguous, or where a risk assessment identifies substantative risk to life.
MITs were established in 2000 to replace the former Area Major Incident Pools (AMIPs) as part of Scotland Yard's Serious Crime Group.
In 2001, there were 31 murder investigation teams operating in London, made up of 834 police officers,182 civilian staff, and 14 senior detectives.
Currently, murder investigation in London is undertaken by the Specialist Crime Directorate's Homicide Command, which is split geographically into three units (West, East and South), each led by a Detective Chief Superintendent. Each of the Command Units has nine Major Investigation Teams (MITs), consisting of 33 staff, led by a Detective Chief Inspector (DCI), who performs the role of senior investigating officer (SIO).
[edit] Television programme
On 3 May 2003, Britain's ITV1 television network debuted a new police drama series called MIT: Murder Investigation Team, portraying the cases investigated by a London murder squad. The programme itself was a spin-off to ITV's long-running police drama The Bill, and the first episode featured the team investigating the drive-by shooting of one of The Bill's popular characters, Sgt. Matt Boyden. There were 10 one-hour episodes in the first series. Produced by Tom Cotter, the series starred Samantha Spiro, Lindsey Coulson, Richard Hope and Steven Pacey, with guest appearances from Gary Kemp (of Spandau Ballet) and Paul Bown (who previously appeared from 1987 to 1993 with Emma Wray and Liza Tarbuck in the ITV sitcom called Watching).
A second series consisting of four 90-minute episodes was commissioned and filmed, and although the series was shown in Australia in February 2005, its UK broadcast was delayed until July 2005.
The MIT abbreviation was removed from the international broadcasts to avoid confusion with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first series was filmed with the working title Think Murder.
