Wednesday, October 1 saw the Metropolitan Police launching Project FALCON. That’s short for Fraud and Linked Crime on-line. For the background to the project see this Met Police document. More in the November print issue of Professional Security magazine.
In short, it’s the Metropolitan Police seeking to deal with cyber fraud and other crime. Costing about £2.7m a year, the project aims to, as the police admit, improve their response to victims of cyber-crime.
City of London Police has welcomed the Met announcement. The CIty force is the National Policing Lead for Economic Crime with responsibility for the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and the Action Fraud reporting centre. City of London Police Commissioner Adrian Leppard said: “I welcome the creation of FALCON and the priority this type of crime is being given by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the Mayor’s Office. These London-based teams will be an important addition to the national capability being developed by the City of London Police, the National Crime Agency and police forces across the rest of the country.”
Speaking at the launch event Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, pictured, said: “FALCON sees a more focused and joined-up approach by the Met, the business industry and other law enforcement agencies to ensure that we are protecting the public, designing out the crime and arresting the culprits. We will be more powerful if the three of us can work together – the police, the public and businesses.”
And Karen Bradley, the Home Office Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime, added: “The threat from cyber crime is ranked as a major threat in our National Security Strategy and the Government is investing £860m over five years to tackle it. We are also increasing knowledge throughout local police forces with specialist training.
Meanwhile the London Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) is be responsible for commissioning over £15m of victim services in the coming 18 months. MOPAC makes the point that there are still over 50,000 notifiable crimes recorded each month in London. Some two-fifths of victims believe that the criminal justice system fails to provide them with support that they need, according to the office.
Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Stephen Greenhalgh – in effect the police and crime commissioner for the capital – said: “The Mayor’s Office is taking over control of funding victims services in London so we can do more than ever to help victims cope and recover from crime, with support geared towards the individual. That means more support for the most vulnerable, more support for those who don’t have the confidence to come forward and report offences and more support for those who are at risk of becoming repeat victims. Crime is coming down in London but there is still a lot of work to be done. With responsibility for funding, we can now direct money to where it is needed and make sure that we commission tailored and more integrated services for London’s victims.”
