E-crime unit to get government funding?
UK government responds to House of Lords call for better policing of the Internet.
The UK government has indicated that it may set up a new national police
unit dedicated to tackling computer crime. The hint comes as part of the
government's response to a report issued earlier this year by the Science
and Technology Committee of the House of Lords, which strongly advised it
to take steps to improve the policing of the Internet.
Specifically, the House of Lords report urged the Home Office to provide
the necessary funds to kick-start the establishment of the Police Central
e-crime Unit (PCeU) - a project driven by members of the Metropolitan
Police to create a central coordination point for e-crime reporting. The
government responded by saying that it will 'consider the proposals to
create a law enforcement unit to tackle crimes involving computers.'
The e-crime unit, run by the Metropolitan Police, would act as a central
coordination point for the e-crime divisions of the UK's local police
forces, providing training for officers, collating e-crime reports and
liaising with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). Its remit would
cover similar areas to those of the now defunct National High Tech Crime
Unit (NHTCU), which was disbanded and absorbed into SOCA in April 2006.
The project has already received financial support from the National
Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), but it has yet to be guaranteed central
government funding and will need to turn to private sector backers if the
government fails to allocate the necessary funds.
The government's response to the House of Lords report can be read in full
here.
01 November 2007
Tags:
cybercrime, government, law enforcement, legal, organized online crime, police, political.
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