‘No one beyond reach’, says head of new crime agency
With a budget of nearly half-a-billion pounds a year, the National Crime Agency (NCA) will lead the fight against the estimated 37,000 criminals involved in serious and organised crime that hits the UK.
More than 4,000 officers will tackle crime under four commands, organised crime, economic crime, border policing and child exploitation and online protection, alongside a National Cyber Crime Unit.
Asked if the new law-enforcement arm would be able to bring the fight to the “higher echelons” of organised crime, NCA director general Keith Bristow said: “To be clear, there will be no one beyond the reach of law enforcement or beyond the reach of the NCA.
“Those people involved in the most horrible activities can expect the most comprehensive and robust response.”
The launch of the NCA spells the end of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which is to be absorbed into the new organisation.
Proposals for the new agency were first unveiled by home secretary Theresa May in Jul 2010 as part of a broader shake-up of the policing landscape.
Announcing the new US-style agency, she said it would have a sweeping new power to step in to directly task and co-ordinate police forces in a bid to tackle organised crime and secure the UK’s borders.
Too many of the near- 6,000 organised crime gangs in the UK were escaping justice and a new approach was needed, she said.
The NCA has an annual budget of £463m (€547m) for resources and £31m for capital, Mr Bristow said.
The NCA will run the country’s first national intelligence hub, place officers at UK ports to tackle border crime such as human trafficking and track down child sex abusers online.
It will also place around 120 officers overseas in 40 different countries.
Mr Bristow, a former chief constable, said the NCA would not operate as a covert organisation and wants to be recognised by the public. Some of its officers will wear jackets and caps emblazoned with NCA when on operations. “We’re going to be visible,” he said.
“We want the public to know who we are, what we do, what we’re delivering, to understand the serious and organised crime threat that effects every neighbourhood and every citizen throughout the UK.”
The NCA will also be recruiting “special” officers — volunteers like special constables in police forces.
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