Hello ? ( click)…. It\’s the Serious Fraud Office you need to press 1 now otherwise you will face prison.

Words similar to a scam doing the rounds last year.

The true scale of economic crime in this country is unknown.

What Action Fraud deals with is probably the tip of the iceberg.

The way fraud is dealt with is that most incidents are fed through to Action Fraud who either deal with it or pass it back to local forces.

Not working

The widely held view is that the current system doesn\’t work and therefore we really don\’t know the true extent of economic crime in the country.

I have long said more needs to be done nationally,  but locally we can do our bit too.

Cyber crime now BAU

I was the first Police & Crime Commissioner in the country to make cyber crime a policing priority, its now business as usual now for our force.

But with every good plan and vision it needs to evolve and adapt.

That is why under the Every Crime Matters, Every Contact Counts priority in my Police and Crime plan, I highlighted a need for the force to do more locally around economic crime such as phone scams and internet fraud.

Covid scams

The need for a new national and local approach is demonstrated by the recent growth in scams during the coronavirus pandemic, this has brought it home for many people.

In the last few weeks alone , the force has sent out alerts about  #covidscams via the CommunityAlerts system which was introduced by the force after a suggestion by my office and I under my agenda to make the police more accessible and accountable.

But fraud is something that does need tackling both locally and nationally.

True to my word.

So Commissioner what are you doing about it ? The answer – as part of the continued investment in policing paid for by local taxpayers, we\’ve been able to create an economic crime unit and currently the force is looking to recruit a dedicated \”officer\” to lead on the partnership, public relationship and education work… the job is currently advertised on the forces website. 

But for me – I made a promise to do more around economic crime, and this is an example of delivering on my promises.

For more info on some of the other things, we\’ve achieved since I came into office – click here.