Forces may unite to tackle cyber crime
Seven-force plan after historic meeting
POLICE: A ‘historic’ meeting between the seven chief constables and crime commissioners of Yorkshire and the North East could lead to the region’s seven police forces working together to tackle the growing threat of cyber crime.
It is the latest stage of efforts by police chiefs in the region to share resources.
A ‘HISTORIC’ meeting between the seven chief constables and crime commissioners of Yorkshire and the North East could lead to the region’s seven police forces working together to tackle the growing threat of cyber crime.
Yorkshire’s most senior officers, and those from the Cleveland, Northumbria and Durham police forces, met this week for the first time near Middlesbrough to discuss how they could collaborate.
It is the latest stage of efforts by police chiefs in the region to share resources and comes in the week that the forces in Devon & Cornwall and Dorset suggested merging to form a more efficient single unit.
Barry Coppinger, police and crime commissioner for Cleveland, wrote on Twitter: “Making history in a meeting with the 7 North East Chief Constables, PCCs and Chief Executives – lots of positive discussions.”
He added: “We agreed to work together across the seven force region to keep people safe, to better understand and respond to cyber crime, including the identification of a group to carry out this important work, to commit to future meetings and to develop governance going forward.”
His West Yorkshire counterpart Mark Burns-Williamson told
The Yorkshire Post that the meeting was about getting senior police officials to “buy in” to the notion of working closer together in some areas.
He said: “Cyber crime is something we are keen to further explore to see what more we can do to pool resources to look at the coordinated response. It is too early to say what the outcome will be, it is at a very early stage. It was a high-level discussion to establish principle.
“We needed to establish what the national direction of travel was and we thought it would be a good thing to have a more coordinated approach. We will be coming up with proposals as to how we will do that in the next few months.
“It was a positive meeting and we all acknowledged that as criminality changes, with cybercrime, a lot of boundaries are non-existent with crime online.
“That sort of thing is something we all have to consider and look at making sure we are using our resources as effectively as possible.”
In an online message, West Yorkshire’s chief constable Dee Collins described the meeting as “terrific” and “positive”.
Another seven-force meeting is expected later this year, in addition to the more regular regional collaboration meetings which involve only the Yorkshire forces.
In recent years, police in Yorkshire have responded to budget cuts by attempting to collaborate with their neighbouring forces.
South Yorkshire and Humberside Police share human resources and IT functions, while North Yorkshire has merged its major crime and dogs section with Cleveland and Durham.
Scientific support services and underwater search are carried out by a single team across Yorkshire.
A lot of boundaries are non-existent with crime online. West Yorkshire police and crime commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson.
WITH HINDSIGHT, it’s regrettable that the then Labour government didn’t have the political willpower a decade or so ago to advance the merger of Britain’s police forces.
Tony Blair and Charles Clarke, the then Home Secretary, recognised at the time that there would be a practical need for greater collaboration because artificial force barriers don’t stop criminals in their tracks. Others disagreed.
And while there have been many occurrences in the intervening period when neighbouring forces, and regions, have pooled their resources, they only now have the confidence to highlight such examples.
In the week when the merger of the Devon and Cornwall force with Dorset moved a step nearer in the South West, it’s surprising that it has taken this long for the seven chief constables, crime commissioners and chief executives of the seven constabularies in Yorkshire and the North East to attend a meeting hailed as ‘historic’ by attendees.
Like those Yorkshire local authorities now looking to work together on the issue of devolution because it is in the best interests of the whole county to do so, such gatherings between police chiefs – and the resulting message that this sends out – will only help to encourage those in lower ranks to do likewise.
And while they’re right to highlight the issue of cybercrime, and specifically the need to harness the very latest IT intelligence in order to identify those who are using the internet to defraud the unsuspecting, or lure the most vulnerable and under-aged, policing leaders should not be afraid to see if there are other areas where there’s scope for greater co-operation.
After all, every duplication of senior leadership positions – or resources – is one less officer on the beat building links with a law-abiding public concerned at the perceived remoteness of today’s police as the thin blue line becomes stretched by spending restraints.