Superintendents’ VP calls for cybercrime to be ‘normalised’
A senior police officer has called for the investigation of cybercrime to become routine for all police officers because the specialist units presently set up will not be able to cope with the growing instances of the new wave in criminality.
Chief Superintendent Gavin Thomas, Vice President of the Police Superintendents’ Association was reported in the online newsletter Police Oracle as saying that every officer had to be normalised in investigating cybercrime if the police service was to keep up with growing demand.
He said the speed of growth in cybercrime meant the service could not afford to be solely reactive or strictly specialist in its approach.
“My problem is we are creating bespoke specialisms within the police service but this needs to be normalised.
“Very quickly something happening like this will become a norm in our society; so how do we normalise our approach to these technologies in terms of investigating the crime, recording it and protecting people?”
The rate of people shopping online was also going up by around 10% year-on-year: increasing the likelihood that more fraud would be committed.
Chief Supt Thomas said: “This is not going to go away - people are changing their behaviours and how they live their lives.”
He said the service had a tendency to be behind the curve on technology and this was evident in the 80s and 90s with the increasing popularity of mobile phones.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show a dramatic reduction in the number of recorded crimes for the period from April 2012 to March 2013, while detection rates for the same period were the highest since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002.
The College of Policing Professional Committee has approved updated guidance on media relationships to ensure a more consistent approach by forces in their regular dealings with the media. The updated guidance, called Relationships with the Media, will now be available to Chief Constables for implementation.
Plans to allow law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access the IP addresses used for communication in suspected crimes included in the Queen’s Speech on 8 May have reignited fears of a so-called “snoopers’ charter” among some civil rights groups.
Surrey Police has halted development of an integrated criminal information and intelligence system, known as SIREN (Surrey Integrated Reporting Enterprise Network), which has so far cost in excess of £14m. The decision was made by its newly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner Kevin Hurley (pictured) following an independent review and a report by the Chief Constable that the system no longer represented the most up-to-date solution.