The UK Police Plans Regional Cybercrime Squads

With cyber-criminal activity increasing every year, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is under serious pressure to come up with better strategies to combat these threats. A new plan currently being considered is to establish regional cybercrime squads, similar to the already existent counter-terrorism teams.

The Financial Times reports that the new strategy is to be co-ordinated by Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD) Janet Williams, who was also appointed to lead the Metro Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU).

The new cybercrime squads are also to be co-ordinated by the PCeU, which already demonstrated its ability to fight e-crime by scoring a few notable hits, despite being seriously underfunded. The plan, which still has to be ratified, would require police officers to be trained in handling cybercrime reports.

"We are trying to develop a more consistent approach to handling cybercrime as part of the development of an e-crime strategy. How many regional cybercrime squads there might be, or where they will be based, is yet to be determined. The plan needs to be ratified by ACPO before I can go into details," an ACPO spokesperson commented for The Register.

"This strategy is the first stage in developing a more consistent approach to e-crime across UK police forces, increasing the skills and capacity for law enforcement officers to tackle such criminality and to mainstream e-crime into everyday policing and law enforcement activities. We trust that by so doing we will enhance both industry and public confidence."

The plan to establish regional cybercrime squads aims at "increasing the skills and capacity for law enforcement officers to tackle such criminality and to mainstream e-crime into everyday policing and law enforcement activities," Janet Williams said. "We trust that by so doing we will enhance both industry and public confidence," she added.

Meanwhile, a new dedicated Cabinet Office body, called the Office of Cyber Security, is to be created along with a Cyber Security Operations Centre that will analyze potential cyber attacks on UK and come up with ways to counter them.