The UK government recently announced that a new agency will be created to tackle organised crime. The aim of the newly formed National Crime Agency (NCA) is to create a single unit that can effectively tackle all forms of serious and complex organised crime in partnership with both national and international police forces.
The NCA –dubbed as the UK’s FBI – will combine the previous operations of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, as well as adopting some responsibilities from the UK Borders Agency and the National Police Improvement Agency.
SOURCE: BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10768583
On the surface, this seems like a positive move from the government. The creation of a single agency which can investigate all types of organised crime will create a much more efficient and effective policing force that can help reduce crime in the UK (and have a positive influence on crime at an international level too). However, whilst the intentions are positive, from a vehicle crime perspective the numbers don’t quite add up.
The NCA propose to build upon the existing capabilities held within SOCA to understand and tackle large-scale vehicle theft - but how can they achieve this while the government considers vehicle theft a low priority?
Budget cuts to police forces have severely reduced the number of experienced vehicle theft investigators throughout the UK. The formation of the NCA will not bring back this capability and lost resource, so it seems impossible that the investigation and apprehension of organised vehicle thieves will improve. Vehicle theft units have been hardest hit by the budget cuts. The Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS) recently had all government funding withdrawn, while Chalk Farm (a specialist vehicle crime investigation centre based in London) is due to be shut down at the beginning of next year.
Looking at the statistics, this couldn’t come at a worse time.
Theft is already increasing in some European countries; a trend likely to become more common across the globe in the not too distant future. For the UK, there is unlikely to be a sustained reduction without the assistance of specialist vehicle theft units, regardless of the formation of the NCA. If there isn’t the capability or intelligence to cope with vehicle theft on a national scale, then NCA claims of a target on transnational crime seems a little far-fetched too.
The amount of information available to the NCA is unlikely to change simply because of a re-structure of the policing organisation. If this sort of information is currently available then police forces would already be acting upon it to reduce vehicle crime. The truth is that intelligence is difficult to obtain, requires specialist vehicle crime units to locate the information and then further police support to target the criminals themselves. Closing down vehicle theft units will only bring further negative impact to the level of intelligence available.
This is not a problem unique to the UK either - the USA is also experiencing a dramatic cut in funding for vehicle theft investigation teams, with a number of the vehicle crime units in the country being closed or merged with other departments in the police force. In most cases, vehicle theft is no longer seen by Police authorities as a credible threat to society. Media and insurers even consider new vehicles to be theft-proof without possession of the original vehicle key.
SBD know that this is not the case.
Vehicle theft techniques are becoming more sophisticated and thieves are increasingly able to bypass the advanced security measures being fitted to modern vehicles. It is clear that the number of vehicle thefts is about to take a turn for the worse on a global scale. Only renewed government investment and focus on vehicle crime will ensure that the effective policing methods that have brought vehicle theft rates down to a record low can remain in place and protect vehicles on the roads in the future.
Interested in learning more? Get the latest developments in vehicle security across the world based on information from industry inside sources with SBD’s Monthly Updates. Designed to meet your specific needs, these updates include insurance industry status, theft trends, statistics and new technology. To learn more contact security@sbd.co.uk