Decisive action needs to be taken to address the scourge of cyber crime says Royston Martis. Date - 19th September 2013 By - Royston Martis - Police Oracle. There were many policing “big hitters” at the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales conference. But they were not the most interesting speaker or presentation – not by a long shot. Slipping slightly under the radar – but with the most interesting stuff to say by far – was Peter Goodman, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead on Cyber Crime, with his understated presentation “Leaving The Back Door Open”. Deputy Chief Constable Goodman did not mince his words – a refreshing change for a chief officer. He is obviously not looking for a promotion. He challenged the Home Secretary and government over crime figures. Crime is not falling. It is changing, he asserted. DCC Goodman, said that while Mrs May – and I quote – “revels in the fact” that crime has gone down, cyber crime had actually taken over as the new volume crime in the UK, ahead of burglary or theft from vehicles. He warned that if the Police Service did not improve its overall capability to deal with the volume end of crime, it risked losing its legitimacy. The Crime Survey for England and Wales showed that one-in-three people had suffered "online" crime in 2012-2013 while only one-in-five suffered from "offline" crime. But the cyber problem is worse than reported, according to DCC Goodman. He stated that people “are not reporting because they don’t think we will be able to do anything about it. They don’t think we have got the skills. They don’t think we understand it. And we need to change that so we can build a proper picture of criminality.” The point about cyber crime is that we are all victims. DCC Goodman did a “show of hands” test among some 250 chief superintendents and superintendents in the room at conference. Around 10 per cent of the senior operational leaders said they had been victims of “traditional” acquisitive crime in the last three years. All had been the victim of cyber crime – such as having their identity stolen, their bank account broken into or emails sent to them with begging letters. “What I would have said if I hadn’t got the right number of hands is that it had happened to you and you don’t know about it,” DCC Goodman said. There was more to come. In the month of May this year, the chief officer said there were more than 10,500 cyber crime reports in the country. More than 3,000 were sent for enforcement action to forces. He revealed – when pushed by a very interested HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Tom Winsor – that less than 100 of the 3,000 were actively investigated. This is staggering. Basically – because of online offences – we haven’t got a clue how much crime is occurring in this country now. And when it does occur, and is rightly reported, our Police Service is not investigating it. Not anywhere near good enough. Every police officer from traffic, neighbourhood and response, to those investigating volume crime, such as burglary – have to be normalised in investigating cyber crime. New recruits must understand cyber crime and be taught about it. Senior Investigating Officers must learn and pick up investigative skills. And its impact and importance must be outlined to aspiring chiefs on the Strategic Command Course. The government also have a huge part to play. They need to stop spinning that crime is falling when it is clearly not. It is changing. Investment in prevention is needed – and a “public education programme” is planned in the next few months. But numbers of officers are also needed to investigate and enforce. And the officers remaining following budget cuts already have too many demands on their precious time. I will leave the final words to DCC Goodman: “There is a new victimology that we in the Police Service need to respond to.” And police and politicians need to wake up to this fast.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 13:18:08 +0000