Police Cybercrime Training: Perceptions, Pedagogy, and Policy

Cybercrime has become one of the most pressing developments for police organisations to engage with over recent years. One of the key challenges is to understand how best to effectively impart relevant skills and knowledge about cybercrime throughout the organisation to enable police officers to react appropriately to such illicit behaviours. This paper is drawn from mixed-methods research undertaken as part of the CARI Project, a major study into the effectiveness of cybercrime investigation within a large UK police force funded by the Police Knowledge Fund . As part of the needs assessment for the above project, concerns were raised about the effectiveness of existing training arrangements in facilitating the development of cyber skills within police officers. The present research, based on survey data, sought to explore the effectiveness of different training styles as perceived by those who had undertaken cyber training. The research found that officers perceived some modes of training as considerably more effective than others and highlighted some of the organisational contexts that impact negatively on the delivery of effective cyber training to police officers. Analysis of survey responses indicated that whilst eLearning is perceived as having some utility, such as in delivering refresher training, it is not perceived as effective as other forms of learning delivery. The findings are presented within a context, informed by existing literature, that acknowledges wider debates surrounding the pedagogy of police learning and the organisational challenges of developing cyber skills within police officers.The authors believe that the findings will have relevance to police training policy both in the UK and in the wider international context

Needs Assessment of Cybercrime and Digital Evidence in a UK Police Force

Cybercrime has recently surpassed, in terms of volume, all other forms of crime in the United Kingdom, and has been acknowledged as a national priority. The purpose of this research is to analyse the police cyber-investigation lifecycle: from the experience of the public when reporting cybercrime to call takers, through to the attending officers, officer(s) in charge, and the many units and roles involved in supporting cybercrime investigations. A large scale needs assessment was conducted within one of the largest police forces in England and Wales, involving focus groups and interviews with police staff and strategic leads across key units and roles. The results of the needs assessment document the state of policing cybercrime in a UK police force, along with the improvements and needs that exist across the force and in specific units and roles. In total, 125 needs were identified and further coded based on a thematic analysis. Common themes identified include: knowledge/training, communication, recording, software, roles, governance, procedures, resources, consistency, staffing, national input, face-to-face, interactions with the public, new capabilities, and triage. The most common needs were related to training and knowledge, communications, quality of recording, software, governance, procedures, resourcing, and national input. Due to the nature of the findings, it is likely that some of these identified areas may parallel other police organisations’ experiences at national and international levels