Economic crime - Police Authority role
Chair’s role in tackling economic crime
The Chair of the Police Authority Board, James Thomson, is currently the Deputy Lead for the Fraud Portfolio at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC). Within this role, he champions the fraud agenda and seeks to raise fraud as a priority in local crime and policing plans while providing a channel to share the views of PCCs with key central stakeholders, particularly the Home Office. As part of this role, James is working to establish a National PCC Fraud Forum, with the aim of providing a platform to share best practice, gather views from other PCCs and represent these nationally.
As Chair of the Authority’s Economic and Cyber Crime Committee, James also sits on the Home Office Fraud Policing Oversight Board, which is where the City of London Police is held to account externally for its role as National Lead Force for Fraud and Cyber Crime, complementing the oversight and scrutiny provided by the Authority’s own Economic and Cyber Crime Committee.
In his role as Chair, James has also sat on various consultative bodies, including the Steering Committee for the Royal United Services Institute report on Cyber Fraud (please see RUSI's report on the UK's response to Cyber Fraud below) and on the Advisory Board for the Police Foundation report on crime prevention.
Police Authority Support and Scrutiny of the National Lead Force for Fraud and Cyber Crime
The City of London Police is National Lead Force for Fraud and Cyber Crime and it is working towards five outcomes (below) in order to fulfil this role:
- The public has confidence in the Action Fraud reporting service;
- People and organisations are prevented from being victims of fraud, and victims are supported;
- Police resources are coordinated and deployed efficiently and effectively against fraud threats;
- Fraudsters operating nationally are identified and offending is disrupted; and
- Policing has the capability and capacity to detect, disrupt and deter perpetrators of fraud.
The Police Authority maintains local scrutiny and oversight of the force in meeting its stated objectives at its quarterly Economic and Cyber Crime Committee meetings. Regular updates are also provided to the Police Authority Board on key developments in this area.
The Police Authority also has a key role in supporting the force to deliver these outcomes, particularly by supporting the force’s engagement with key stakeholders, such as Government, APCC, His Majesty's Inspectorate Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, local communities and business and industry leads.
Reports of the force’s performance against its key performance indicators in this area Is available on the meetings pages for Economic Crime Committee of the City of London Police Authority Board.