Talks to discuss funding anational e-crime unitwill open next
week, but the Metropolitan Police Force is set to lose its second
head of its e-crime unit in six months.
Detective chief inspector Charlie McMurdie will meet Home Office
minister
Vernon
Coaker and British Transport Police chief constable
Ian
Johnson to discuss the business case for the unit.
The move is believed to relate to the government's omission from
the comprehensive spending review published two weeks ago of a
mention of e-crime-fighting initiatives.
Last week, shadow home secretary
David Davis promised
extensive support for the fight against e-crime.
Commander Sue Wilkinson, then the Association of Chief Police
Officers' (Acpo) lead on e-crime, asked the Home Office for £4.5m
to establish the e-crime unit. This was mainly to replace the
National High Tech Crime Unit, which was absorbed into the
Serious Organised Crime
Agency in April 2006.
The new unit would have some 45 staff, of which several would
have come from internet service providers (ISPs), banks and
government. It would incorporate the Met computer crime unit which
has a budget of £1.3m.
McMurdie, who received her superintendent's qualifications in
September 2007, is believed to have held on until the government's
Comprehensive Spending Review before accepting promotion within the
Met to a covert operational role.
McMurdie said, "I am at present the DCI for the Met computer
crime unit and a superintendent's post does not exist within this
arena. A new DCI will be recruited to take over my post, and if and
when funding is available for the new unit then a superintendent
will also be recruited to run it."
She said a new ACPO lead for e-crime will also be appointed from
the Met in the next few weeks. "The Met has undertaken to lead
e-crime delivery and several areas of work are ongoing at present
despite the lack of a central unit or national remit," she
said.