Police Cybercrime Training: Perceptions, Pedagogy and Policy

Cybercrime has become one of the most pressing developments for police organisations to engage with over recent years. One of the key challenges here 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 a major study into the effectiveness of cybercrime investigation within a large UK police force funded by College of Policing/Hefce. The research found that officers perceived some modes of training as considerably more effective than others and, similarly, highlighted some of the organisational contexts that impact negatively on the delivery of effective cyber training to police officers. The authors believe that the findings will have relevance to police training policies both in the UK and in the wider international context.