October 1, 2008: New Met Police e-crime Unit

The Home Office has announced a £3.5m funding package for a new Police Central e-crime Unit (PceU) which will be run by the Metropolitan Police as a national resource, in conjunction with the National Fraud Reporting Centre and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

Funding of £3.5m will be provided by the government, in addition £3.9m from the Met over three years to fund a new national team that will be dedicated to tackling electronic crime and internet fraud.

The PCeU will not overlap with existing organisations such as Serious and Organised Crime Agency’s e-crime unit or with Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, both of which have different and separate responsibilities, but the PCeU and these organisations will communicate regularly and will work together if required.

The unit will also seek support from industry partners and is expected to be operational in spring 2009. Its creation builds on proposals by the Met and ACPO for increasing capacity and capability within the police service to get to grips with modern forms of hi-tech internet crime.

The PCeU will provide specialist officer training and coordinate cross-force initiatives to crack down on on-line offences.

Met and ACPO lead for e-crime, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams, commented:

“We can now work towards creating a national coordination centre to combat e-crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is our aim to improve the police response to victims of e-crime by developing the capability of the Police Service."

“We will be co-ordinating the law enforcement approach to all types of e-crime, and providing a national investigative capability for the most serious e-crime incidents.'