Police let down by e-crime ignorance

When it comes to cybercrime – or any kind of crime with a computer involved – it seems the British bobby has a long way to go. That's the conclusion from a report by Eurim (the European Information Society Group) and IPPR (the Institute for Public Policy Research) advocating widespread reform of the criminal justice system's education on IT.

The discussion paper, Supplying the skills for justice, says that while computer-assisted crime is fast becoming the norm, the criminal justice system is failing to keep up with its technological knowledge and resources.

One of the main criticisms levelled at the UK police's involvement in cybercrime is that there simply isn't enough to go around. Operation Ore, which investigated internet paedophiles, led to a number of arrests but involved the majority of the available resources – an insufficient number of officers trained in the area that means that investigation of other e-crime faces a delay of six months to a year.

There are 8,000 security professionals in the private sector, compared to 1,000 digital evidence specialists in the 140,000-strong police force.

The other problem dogging the criminal justice system is a lack of clarity over who should know what and to what standard.

"Mass-market training is... missing, the throughput of the high level courses is seriously inadequate and responsibility for action is fragmented," the paper says. "There is little point in enacting new legislation without addressing the current skills crisis."

Top of the list to solve the IT skills crisis is one department to take charge and establish some policies and goals, according to the paper, with Skills for Justice, the criminal justice sector skills council, to take charge of sorting out the frameworks and specifications for training and accreditation, backed up by IT skills council e-skills.

The tricky issue of funding for a more tech-confident force is also addressed, with the Home Office one possible target to take the lead in gathering the appropriate financing from the various government departments and private sector.

It's not just more high-level forensic police that Eurim and IPPR want to see benefiting from an e-crime training drive, recommending: "the Home Office works with and through Skills for Justice and professional institutions to mandate the inclusion of practical ICT security in all publicly funded end-user and technician training."