Chief police officers are drawing up proposals for the
creation of a new national police unit to coordinate the
investigation and reporting of computer crime across the UK's 43
police forces.
The plan follows an outcry from businesses earlier this year
over the closure of the National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU),
leaving a potentially serious gap in high-tech policing.
The new unit, if approved by the Home Office, will draw on
specialist resources in local police forces and business to collate
and investigate high-tech crime and advise businesses on security
measures.
The proposal is part of a national computer crime strategy under
development by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to
raise the UK's capability in policing computer crime.
"There is real potential in a unit like that," said Sue
Wilkinson, ACPO lead on e-crime, in her first interview in the
role.
"I think the NHTCU had a valuable role. It was pretty high
profile, everybody knew about it, it was contactable."
The ACPO strategy aims to make better use of existing computer
crime units across the UK by raising local expertise and pooling
resources across police forces.
ACPO is conducting a capability assessment exercise over the
next few months that will identify what computer expertise each
force has. For example, some forces have expertise in covert
internet surveillance, others in telecoms.
"One of the most important things is that every force is aware
of where it can go to get specialist support in any particular
area. That is what we are working on. I would not demand that every
force has a particular model of computer crime unit," said
Wilkinson.
ACPO also plans to encourage police forces to draw on the
expertise of private sector information security specialists to act
as special constables.
The Metropolitan Police computer crime unit is pioneering the
approach with a database of 50 special constables with IT
expertise, and is looking at plans to draw on other private sector
security experts to advise businesses.
"We hope that this is an idea that will spread because it has
tremendous potential," said Wilkinson.
Irrespective of whether the Home Office backs a replacement for
the NHTCU, the ACPO strategy could have a significant impact on
high-tech crime, Wilkinson said.
"If there is no money and no support for [a new unit] we can
still make a huge impact in terms of coordination through what we
are doing with our national strategy."
More information
www.acpo.police.uk
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