Ecrime efforts stall over staff

Computing probe shows lack of resources in fight against electronic crime

Senior police officers have criticised high-tech crime measures following a Computing investigation that reveals UK forces lack specialist staff and resources.

More than half of police forces have five or fewer staff dedicated to ecrime, and three forces have none at all, despite being given greater ecrime investigation and reporting responsibilities when the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) was disbanded last April.

Computing contacted every force in the UK. The vast majority of those questioned in ecrime units said paedophile and child abuse cases consume more than 75 per cent of their time. Only six constabularies mentioned working with businesses to tackle ecrime.

One high-tech unit officer says senior management does not understand the dangers of ecrime, estimated by the NHTCU as costing business £2.4bn in 2004.

‘We have a very large backlog of work,’ he said. ‘Trying to convince management that people need training is very difficult because they are not technically minded. Last year they halved our budget and next year they will totally remove it.’

Another senior police officer told Computing that dealing with ecrime is not a high priority for chief constables because it is not immediately visible and they cannot put ‘ticks in boxes’.

Computing’s findings coincide with a House of Lords Science and Technology Committee investigation that was told last week that police lack the skills and expertise to deal effectively with instances of internet crime.

IT expert Alan Cox, who gave evidence on behalf of the open source community, said: ‘If you walk up to the desk sergeant at a typical police station he does not understand the problem. We need either an understanding of ecrime in police stations or we need a central contact point.’

When the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) superseded the NHTCU, the idea was for Soca to liaise with the individual constabularies on ecrime cases.

But Rick Naylor, vice president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said: ‘The overall feeling with the way that Soca deals with police forces is that it has not been as we envisaged it. Local police do not have the same relationship with Soca that they had with the NHTCU.’

Ollie Ross, research director at user body The Corporate IT Forum, said: ‘The nature of ecrime is that it emanates and reverberates beyond local boundaries. The situation has gone backwards.’

What do you think? Email us at [email protected]