The chair of the City of London Police Authority Board (PAB) has set out the force’s policies.
The board’s main role is to make sure City Police runs an effective and efficient service, ensuring value for money in the way the force is run, and setting policing priorities taking into account the views of the community.
PAB Chair James Thomson said that over the forthcoming year the Policing Plan will ensure that the force prioritises:
- the reduction of violent crime and public disorder
- preventing serious and organised crime
- a neighbourhood policing model which focuses on tackling antisocial behaviour and roads policing.
Mr Thomson told the Court of Common Council: “Our vision for the City is to make it the safest business district in the world, and for the City of London Police to continue to be the leading specialist force for protective security – and at a national level, for tackling economic crime and cyber security.
“A secure Square Mile is one of the reasons businesses choose to locate to London and the City.
“Economic and cyber enabled crime accounts for a third of all crimes in the UK, affecting every one of us – our friends, our families, our businesses, every day, 24 hours a day.
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“It must not just be measured simply by the cost to banks, financial services and business – although that is significant – but it must also be measured by its impact on individual victims of crime.
“The impact on those individuals is often life-changing, wreaking financial and emotional havoc on vulnerable people, their mental health and in many cases, victims are driven to taking their own lives.
“The City Police’s expertise in economic crime and protective security is a vital component of the City of London Corporation’s work to promote the UK as a place to invest and do business, especially on behalf of financial and professional services and the fintech sector.
“It is why the City Police’s National Lead Force role in policing for economic and cybercrime is so important to maintaining the UK’s competitiveness, and for protecting many thousands of victims.”
Fraud is the fastest growing area of crime in the UK and the City of London Police receives 800,000 reports a year.
It accounts for one third of all crimes, and is of increasing importance nationally, but only receives a fraction – just under 2% – of police resources to tackling it.
Fraud is an under-reported crime, and reported losses were around £2.3bn in the last financial year, affecting around a million people.
As well as significant financial loss, it causes significant harm to victims of crime, many often highly vulnerable, and in many cases that harm is life changing.
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