Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner of Police.

Members considered a report of the Commissioner regarding National Lead Force Performance for the six months to 30 September 2018 and the following points were made.

Pursue

·         The Commissioner noted the 15% increase of reported crimes to Action Fraud compared to the previous year and added that this was a positive development as each reported crime added to a more complete intelligence picture. The Force was currently supporting 11,000 victims, undertaking 559 investigations, and monitoring 54 organised crime groups.

·         The response to a question from a Member regarding public engagement, the Commissioner replied that work needed to be undertaken to create a clear narrative that economic crime was as much a policing issue as was anti-social behaviour. Moreover, the scale of economic crime was massive – for example, banks often absorbed credit card fraud on behalf of their customers but did not report this as the impact of economic crime.

·         A Member referenced a recent report by Which? that noted the scale of economic crime and queried whether the Economic Crime Board had a role in highlighting the issue with central Government. In response, the Commander noted that fraud was a relatively complex and dry subject which meant the narrative around economic crime needed to change. The ECD would be publishing economic crime statistics quarterly and annually and was reaching out to partners such as Police and Crime Commissioners.

·         In response to a further question on the role of the Board in shaping that narrative, the Commander noted that this was a discussion item for a future meeting.

·         In response to an observation from a Member that Action Fraud was not as user-friendly as it could be, the Commissioner noted that the new Action Fraud system had gone live six weeks previously with a refreshed dashboard and a function that prompted regular updates for the person or organisation that had reported a crime.

·         In response to a comment from a Member, the Commissioner agreed to schedule a session on Action Fraud customer experience.

Protect

·         The Commissioner noted that social media engagement was high and that the Force was undertaking work to ensure security-by-design – for example the Force had a placement with Microsoft to engineer out any reported software security flaws.

·         The Commissioner reported that the CyberGriffin programme involved monthly security briefings for industry, and that a recent survey had demonstrated that 25% of businesses engaged changed their approach to cybersecurity as a result of the programme.

Prepare

·         The Commissioner noted that 507 delegates to the Economic Crime Academy (ECA) had a 99% satisfaction rate. The Force was currently recruiting to five posts to the ECA as this was intrinsic to the ECDs overall capability.

·         In response to a question from a Member, the Commissioner noted that the Force did employ a number of training partners and agreed to check whether these included City & Guilds.

Victim Service

·         The Commissioner noted that the Force would continue to survey economic crime victims going forward to inform the Force’s approach to victim service.

·         In response to a question regarding return on investment, the Commissioner noted that the Force had a number of tools to ensure asset recovery, and that assessments could be made regarding the future value of harm prevented by the disruption of criminal activity.

·         The Commissioner noted that resourcing was a challenge given the national shortage of trained detectives. A new recruitment process had been implemented which had seen 17 new detectives put in post, with a further 7 in January 2019. There would be a total of 24 detectives in ECD from April 2019. This would be the first time that ECD had achieved full complement.

·         The Commissioner noted that there was no Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff in the Economic Crime Victim Unit (ECVU) due to the fact that only short-term funding had been available to date. There was now a guaranteed funding stream up until 2020. A small number of agency staff provided any required capacity.

·         In response to a question from a Member regarding some departments being over-establishment, the commissioner noted this was where work cover was required.

RESOLVED, that the report be received.