Belgium's New Detectives

Sacha Van Loo, a detective with Belgium's police force, is fluent in seven languages, knows a number of more dialects (same language spoken in different ways) in his head and has an acute sense of hearing. In fact, he is everything an awesome detective should be and more - He is also blind.

Meet Belgium's latest weapons against crime, six blind or visually impaired detectives of which Sacha Vam Loo is one. The detectives have been hired to listen to phone tapping evidence and bugged (taped) conversations. The reason for hiring blind detectives is because their other senses become more sharper and they can hear "clues" that people with eyesight seem to miss. This is especially helpful in a taped conversation, where the location of the call or the kind of phone used can make all the difference in solving a mystery,

Sacha Van Loo has already proved himself invaluable   after being on the force for just six months. In one investigation the police thought they were dealing with a criminal from Morocco. However after Sach listened to it, he identified the suspect as Albanian, which turned out to be accurate and helped catch the criminal. 

When the Belgian police advertised for these positions, they were surprised at the overwhelming  response they received. While the initial trial is only for six detectives, they hope to open up a lot more positions in the future, for these amazing crime-solving individuals.

source: www.independent.co.uk