Essex Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh, National Police Lead for Digital Investigation and Intelligence, in a frank and revealing interview on the threat from cybercrime


C


ity Security magazine met up with Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh to


discuss the current policing approach to cybercrime and the significant changes needed to keep abreast of its industrial and diverse scale.


How would you describe the current threat from cybercrime?


The scale and nature of the threat is increasing at a deeply concerning rate that the private sector struggles with and the public sector poorly understands. It is an international policing challenge. Fraud, harassment, child abuse and conventional crime are all being underpinned by technology.


The Office for National Statistics crime reports now show that fraud and computer misuse offences outstrip all other types of crime. Government, police chiefs and partners must understand the level of harm that this represents.


How is UK policing responding?


The good news for law enforcement and partners in the UK is that, even though there is not enormous resource committed, transformation funding is enabling us to organise ourselves for the digital age: how the public contact us, how we develop intelligence, how we present evidence to court, in a way that is as good as anywhere in the world.


However, policing must take responsibility for the speed of the response. In particular, the police response to Action Fraud has not always been what it should be, with victims of fraud not dealt in a way British policing would want. But this whole endeavour is maturing.


How are the police upskilling for the digital age?


Modern technology with a motivated workforce is truly changing the way policing is working – not just digital crimes, but around mainstream crimes.


Our Digital Media Investigators, who work on the digital policing portfolio, are developing a range of skills – in fraud, harassment, Domestic Violence, digital forensics – to become part of a national network. And our First Responding Officers are being upskilled in their understanding of the digital footprint, how they can use open source intelligence and other forms of information analysis.


2 © CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – SUMMER 2017


Here in Essex, we have two thousand mobile devices for our front line officers, allowing them to update intelligence reports. This means information on sex offenders, burglaries, descriptions of missing people are available immediately.


Sufficiently accessible mobile apps don’t need a tech wizard. Officers should be able to use a mobile device to complete a statement, a stop and search and an intelligence report. This makes the job easier, unlocking policing from the bureaucracy that has tied back generations, making our police officers multi-skilled.


We have invested millions but we are not really pushing the envelope around skills and capabilities with the resourcing we have. We won’t truly become a twenty-first century endeavour in policing in the UK until there is a step change in how we provide IT support and digital technologies to forces.


Is legislation keeping pace with these emerging crime types?


We are constantly trying to make the best of what is an outdated legislative model. There is a constant mend and make good approach: officers and the CPS make the best charges possible. We need a Criminal Justice System that is clear and helps victims understand when they been a victim of crime and the ability to prosecute those causing the greatest harm in a consistent way. We need a system that allows officers to know exactly what evidence to identify, secure and present to court.


As professional police officers, we must articulate our ambition and the risks we manage – whether fraud, online abuse or drugs trafficking – in increasingly complex times, with reducing resources.


How will the new National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) reduce the cyber security risk to the UK?


The international dimension covered by the security services and the National Crime Agency is well supported and developed, but we are being drowned by data. This new Unit will help us bridge the gap between the national and international digital challenge and what local forces and regional crimes forces are doing. It will enable us to understand where on that continuum of harm we are and how to manage and investigate it. This Unit will be an enormous step forward.


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What can the police do to support the NCCU?


Forces cannot be child-like in their response. As the Unit develops, we must assist them: share intelligence on new and emerging crime types and methodologies and better crime prevention advice. Already we have good examples of individuals, forces and partnerships sharing information, but we need to be more consistent. There is an element of post code understanding and ability to deal with the threat that is emerging.


A key concern of yours is online child abuse; what are the challenges to tackling this crime?


In the past it was difficult for paedophiles to find like-minded people to share images. Now we have the echo chamber of social media, where these groups identify and coalesce, reaffirm their beliefs or values and encourage more depraved imagery. Then those locked away in the internet form dangerous sub communities, pulling away from the mainstream. This is not something you can arrest your way out of.


Policing now needs a greater level of confidence in what it does. Recently, the Chief Constable of Norfolk, Simon Bailey, tried to mature the debate around child abuse imagery. Some of the responses to his statements were crass and superficial in the extreme. The numbers of people viewing child abuse imagery, provided by NSPCC, show that we do not have enough prison places, by many times, even if we were able to prosecute them all. Police chiefs and government must start talking about how to deal with this. Of course, it is hugely wrong and corrosive to all concerned, but there is a capacity issue in the Criminal Justice System and law enforcement.


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