Police training documents suggest the force are unequipped to investigate Big Tech
New training documents have revealed that UK police officers are left largely unequipped to investigate Big Tech despite a government push to crackdown on online harms.
According to reports from Sky News, training fails to teach officers how they can contribute to social media app investigations, with officers instead being told to obtain specialist support.
Materials released under freedom of information laws show that policeman aren’t told what kind of evidence they need to obtain from social media giants, and one training pack document incorrectly described the acronym RAM as standing for Rapid Access Memory rather than Random Access Memory.
Speaking with Sky News, Professor Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey, said he was “surprised officers investigating reports of potentially harmful behaviour are not schooled rather more in how to walk the virtual beat”.
A spokesperson for the College of Policing told Sky News: “The college has recognised the need to further increase digital skills in non-specialist roles and last year launched a new suite of training for all police officers and staff across the country.”
However, it seems the prevalence of the virtual beat has become even more pertinent following the introduction of the Online Safety Bill.
Speaking with City A.M., Head of Public Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs Matthew Lesh said:”The Government is rushing through draconian legislative powers [in the form of the Online Safety Bill], which are meant to improve online safety, while failing to properly educate and resource the police to tackle real crime.”
“The Government should take responsibility for criminal justice rather than outsourcing speech policing to Big Tech. The Online Safety Bill’s Impact Assessment dismissed police resourcing, perhaps it is time to reconsider.”