My wife watches police "procedural" stories (Law & Order, CSI, NCIS, etc.). I've long thought that some of their plot lines would make for interesting "what if" training cases for real cops.
Aren't something approaching 100% of those stories pulled from the headlines? (Not disagreeing with you that they would also make good training cases.)
I don't know about 100%, but it is quite a common thing. That said, even if you make a crime/situation/scenario up entirely, there is a good chance it has happened somewhere.
Case studies of actual investigations - what worked, what didn't, what the big break was, etc - are not uncommon in law enforcement academies and training.
When you watch stuff like CSI and Law & Order, their criminal investigation stuff is often about as accurate as their high tech and computer science stuff.
Law and Order certainly pulls a lot from real cases, but it's not that high of a percentage. I'm sure many are inspired by multiple cases mixed together but most murders are pretty boring by fiction standards.
