News from TruckPol: After two years out in the wilderness, TruckPol is set to re-open its doors after securing sponsorship and support from the National Business Crime Solution (NBCS).
The joint police and haulage industry partnership dedicated to fighting freight crime, originally closed down in March 2012 due to a withdrawal of Home Office funding, and the NBCS will launch a freight and logistics crime desk which will be tasked to working with local constabularies to help UK businesses tackle freight and logistics crime and identify key hot spots and criminal trends through centralised and collective data sharing.
Catherine Bowen, Policy & Stakeholder Director at the National Business Crime Solution, said, “We are delighted to be re-launching TruckPol. However, the success of TruckPol is dependent on having a regular and consistent flow of crime data from both the police and industry. That’s why we have today contacted each Chief Constable announcing the re-launch of TruckPol and requesting their support through the regular supply of freight crime data.”
Sue Fish, Deputy Chief Constable for Nottinghamshire Police and National Policing Lead for Business Crime Reduction said, “We speak of collaboration not isolation. The National Business Crime Solution re-launch of TruckPol is welcomed as it adds the vehicle crime dimension that we need to provide the whole intelligence picture necessary to address business crime.
“The fact that the business community are willing to support the re-introduction of TruckPol financially with a clear desire that it is run by the NBCS is testament to the developing momentum that the public private intelligence partnership is having on addressing business crime in all its forms.”
The NBCS is underpinned by a live information and intelligence-sharing platform, which is used by a number of UK retailers and businesses for crime data sharing. Registered users can submit their business crime data into the system and this information is then collated, analysed and disseminated to other participating business members locally, regionally, nationally or by sector.
There have already been many instances where the NBCS has helped identify and prosecute prolific cross-border offenders. In one recent case led to several arrests of cross border criminals plus property worth £200,000 being recovered.
The TruckPol partnership will enable the NBCS to provide analysis and research services specific to freight and logistics crime data and issue timely alerts, bulletins and reports highlighting ‘live time’ incidents, hotspots and crime trends, which alone costs the UK economy an estimated £1 billion annually.
Chrys Rampley, Road Haulage Association said: “The RHA has been a leading supporter of TruckPol since its inception and, as we stressed to the parliamentary transport committee in 2012, we believe it was an essential focal point and needed to be maintained for the collection and sharing of information on crime against the haulage industry and how it can be best combated. Since the closure of TruckPol in 2012, the industry has received little or no intelligence on freight and haulage crime trends or hotspots. We are excited to get TruckPol back up and running to strengthen the fight against freight and business crime.
“The RHA will be working alongside the NBCS and the police service. As part of that, we are launching our own online, easy-to-use reporting service for members. Information which will go directly to TruckPol and assist with the fighting of crime.”
