good evening. san francisco is launching a new plan to fight crime for less. the new civilian police force will help investigate nonviolent crimes, helping ease the burden faced by sworn officers. lilian kim is live in the newsroom to explain how the pilot program will work. reporter: 15 people trained to do basic investigative work. the goal is to improve customer service and make the san francisco police department more efficient. joe greenstein knows first hand how long it can take for a san francisco police officer to show up at his door. it took four hours. my apartment was broken into and i had to wait half a day tore them to come. reporter: the delay is common for nonviolent crimes since officers respond to violent and more urgent cases first. starting in january san francisco will launch a pilot program designed to improve response time. civilian investigators will be trained to respond to the lower priority cases from conducting interviews to collecting evide