Agenda item

The Panel considered a report of the Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner which provided an update on victim services planning and commissioning priorities (for copy see file of Minutes).

Councillor May cited a recent incident of burglary when police attendance had been poor.  The PCVC replied that while he found the circumstances as described by Councillor May hard to understand he would investigate this further if Councillor May provided details outside of the meeting.

Councillor Allen welcomed the report and attached policy document.  The area of cyber-crime was an emerging issue and the Safe Durham Partnership had been asked to look at the trend of cyber-crime and what was happening in County Durham.  The PCVC informed the Panel that Durham had established a cyber-crime unit and was pushing for a regional unit.

Mr Dodwell informed the Panel that cyber-crime was never mentioned at PACT meetings and suggested that officers could be advised to raise the issue to make people more aware.

The Finance Officer informed the Panel that 300 PCs and PCSOs had been trained in the field of cyber-crime and the number of staff in the cyber-crime unit had doubled from 3 to 6.

Councillor Dixon asked whether cyber-crime included bulling through social media.  The Finance Officer replied that a cyber-crime prevention officer would be visiting schools to raise such issues.

Councillor Allen informed the Panel that Durham Constabulary was being proactive in the field of cyber-crime prevention.  There was no doubt that this would become a growing area of criminality and the skills and techniques used to tackle it would need to adapt.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.