Police forces should aim to increase secondment numbers, seconding up to an extra 1500 officers and staff. Law-enforcement agencies should seek to increase the number of cyber volunteers to 12,000 from 40, in part by offering more dynamic volunteering opportunities. And forces should be able to make officers redundant if they are under-performing. These are among the recommendations in a report by the think tank Reform.
For the full 58-page report, titled ‘Bobbies on the net: a police workforce for the digital age’, visit the Reform website.
The report points out that crime with a digital element is rising, such as frauds, and ‘revenge porn’. It notes that cyber-attacks on critical institutions, such as the NHS, did not exist before the internet. Such crime poses severe harm, and is often organised internationally. “Further ahead, new threats will arise. For example, devices connected to the Internet of Things may be hacked, thereby disrupting critical communication between technology such as driverless cars and traffic lights. Thereafter, police face unknowable threats, which may come from unintended consequences of rapidly progressing technologies such as quantum computers and machine learning.”
Technology can also be part of the solution, the report suggests: “Body-worn cameras can recognise criminals and missing people automatically. Smartphones can collect fingerprints from crime scenes. Digital evidence portals would allow victims to upload CCTV footage.”
The report calls on the Home Office to set up a ‘digital academy’, and adds: “Universities could improve their offer of online courses to develop specialist cyber skills for UK police forces.” It urges a ‘learning culture’ on police to learn from errors, as aviation does, and suggests a national convention on the lines of DEF CON in the USA as ‘a space for law-enforcement officials fighting cyber-crime to develop new approaches’. The number of police seconded from forces has fallen sharply in the last 20 years, but secondments are a valuable way for officers (and staff) to develop skills, such as in cyber, and to build relationships, for instance with tech giants, the report says. As so few special constables are specialising in cyber, this is a missed opportunity, according to the report.
For a police officer’s view visit http://www.reform.uk/reformer/using-technology-to-meet-crime/.
Picture by Mark Rowe; an old City of London Police callbox.
Comments
At the NPCC (National Police Chiefs’ Council) lead for Digital Intelligence and Investigation, Essex Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh said: “We continue to embrace the new world of ever-changing technology while adapting to the threats and opportunities that it presents for 21st century policing. From body worn video cameras to the roll-out of cyber-crime units and virtual courts, cutting edge technology is becoming more and more intrinsic to operational policing.
“We are working closely with the College of Policing to ensure that all police officers are equipped with the technological skills that their role demands, whether they are new entrants or chief constables. Forces are also continuing to recruit digital experts who help officers make the most of the opportunities that the digital world presents.
“Adapting to technological change means fully utilising the diverse skills of all of our people. The recent Cyber Special Constable and Cyber Volunteers (CSCV) pilot demonstrated how our specials and volunteers can help police to meet the challenges of changing demands.”
David Emm, principal security researcher, at the IT security product company Kaspersky Lab, said: “With the rise of crime in the cyber world, it is crucial that the skill set of police officers matches the importance of this new battleground. As with markets generally, investment tends to flow into areas where it will be most productive, and crime is no different. With so much financial activity moving online, criminals have capitalised on this by moving their activity into the cyber world –therefore it’s important that we have police officers who understand the ways in which technology can be abused by cybercriminals. However the police, like any organisation, need a diverse range of skills; and it may be that not all roles require technical knowledge and IT acumen.
“The focus for police forces, like any other organisation, should be on ongoing education and upskilling existing staff. Many industries are suffering from a lack of technology skills, and this can only be remedied by increasing internal awareness and by encouraging young people with a passion for cybersecurity to use their skills for the greater good.”
And Javvad Malik, security advocate, at AlienVault, an IT security and threat detection product company, said: “The police force, like many historic industries and organisations has a challenge to keep up with IT skills. While a cyber-academy of sorts would help in the long run. It should also not rule out the collaborative skills that can be pooled from other government departments, or even private industry. In the short term at least, it will be difficult for most institutes to plug their IT skills gap, so leveraging knowledge from the community is a worthwhile endeavour that can yield immediate results.”
