Theresa May, Home Secretary, has revealed plans for enabling police to take on volunteers in the fight against cyber crime in Wales and England.
The Policing and Crime Bill updates will allow volunteers to exercise powers without needing to be a Special Constable. They will be granted the same powers as paid employees, says the Home Office.
May delivered a statement, in which she said:
“Police officers across the country carry out a wide range of duties, keeping the public safe and ensuring justice for the most vulnerable members of society. We value the essential role they play, but they cannot do this on their own.”
She went on to say that they wanted to assist forces in developing a workforce with more flexibility, as well as increase skills and create more time for offers to concentrate on their task at hand.
Accountancy and IT skills are receiving the highest demand. These are the areas that the forces will be asked to place more emphasis on in the early stages of the scheme.
In Wales and England, the number of special constables with the same power as paid employees is somewhere around the 16,000 mark. However, Police Support Volunteers are in the thousands. They are not given such powers, however, although the proposed law amendments could soon change that.
SMEs are not given such privileges as the police, but that doesn’t mean that they should not be improving their cyber crime fighting capabilities. Making cyber security jobs open to trained professionals is highly advisable for UK businesses, especially in the current climate.
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