Caroline Pidgeon has written to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to ask for assurances that, among its other important priorities, the Met will keep a focus on addressing fiancial crimes and fraud.
Caroline wrote:
With the Met continuing to recruit new officers and beginning what is a very much needed upward curve in terms of officer numbers, can you provide assurances that some of these new officers will be trained and deployed to assist the thousands of Londoners whose lives are impacted by financial crimes and fraud every year? Furthermore, without the knowledge and expertise of dedicated officers the Met risks missing valuable learning opportunities to further understand the complex and changing nature of financial crimes and fraud.
I would be grateful if you could provide answers to the key questions below:
- What plans do you have to increase the number of officers dedicated to financial crimes over the next five years?
- How are you ensuring that the Met keeps up-to-date on the latest developments in financial and online fraud to support policing in this area?
- What plans are there to recruit more specialist police staff with technical and IT skills to help with online fraud work?
- Despite having important priorities, how will you be ensuring that financial crime and fraud, which now accounts for roughly one in every three crimes, is tackled as quickly and efficiently as possible within the Met?