Police Cybercrime Training: Perceptions, Pedagogy, and Policy

Abstract

Cybercrime has become one of the most pressing developments for police organisations to engage with over recent years. One of the key challenges is to understand how best to effectively impart relevant skills and knowledge about cybercrime throughout the organisation to enable police officers to react appropriately to such illicit behaviours. This paper is drawn from mixed-methods research undertaken as part of the CARI Project, a major study into the effectiveness of cybercrime investigation within a large UK police force funded by the Police Knowledge Fund . As part of the needs assessment for the above project, concerns were raised about the effectiveness of existing training arrangements in facilitating the development of cyber skills within police officers. The present research, based on survey data, sought to explore the effectiveness of different training styles as perceived by those who had undertaken cyber training. The research found that officers perceived some modes of training as considerably more effective than others and highlighted some of the organisational contexts that impact negatively on the delivery of effective cyber training to police officers. Analysis of survey responses indicated that whilst eLearning is perceived as having some utility, such as in delivering refresher training, it is not perceived as effective as other forms of learning delivery. The findings are presented within a context, informed by existing literature, that acknowledges wider debates surrounding the pedagogy of police learning and the organisational challenges of developing cyber skills within police officers.The authors believe that the findings will have relevance to police training policy both in the UK and in the wider international context.