The National Policing Improvement Agency and Association of Chief Police Officers will work with police forces across the country to raise awareness of how investigations into bank accounts, cash withdrawals and other financial transactions have helped solve murders, rapes and other serious crime around the country. The new work follows the significant rise in the level of assets recovered from criminals over the last five years, from £54.5m in 2003/4 to £135.7m in 2007/8. Speaking ahead of a conference on tackling the proceeds of crime, Chief Constable Peter Neyroud, Chief Executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency, said: "As these figures show, the level of assets recovered by police and the other partners in the criminal justice system has nearly tripled in the last five years. The excellent investigation work into bank accounts and other financial transactions has brought great results. "We want to build on this success and raise awareness amongst forces of the value of these methods, showing how they have helped solving serious non-financial crimes such as rapes, robberies and murders. We are encouraging forces to realise that many aspects of financial investigations can be carried out by any police officer, not just a specialist Financial Investigator." Recent cases in which financial information has helped solved serious crimes include: Mick Creedon, Chief Constable of Derbyshire Constabulary, national ACPO lead on Financial Investigation and Proceeds of Crime, said: "We have made very good progress over the last four years but that is no reason for complacency. We need to ensure that we not only deprive criminals of their assets but also use the ever improving skills of the specialist financial investigators to tackle all kinds of criminality. There is a growing body of evidence that cases of murder, kidnap, rape etc. have either been detected or significantly advanced by the financial investigators. "It is not the 'panacea for all ills' but when used with other investigative techniques, it can be powerful indeed. Obviously, where we deal with criminals who have available assets, we need to ensure we do whatever we can to deprive them of their wealth but there are wider opportunities and we need to take them. "The police continue in their efforts, not only to deprive more and more criminals of their assets, but also to use their developing financial investigation skills to investigate a wide range of criminality." For further information, contact NPIA Press Office on 020 7147 8310/8297/8308/8424 or ACPO Press Office on 020 7084 8947. Notes to Editors The organisation's creation in April 2007 streamlined and simplified the way that policing improvement is delivered locally and nationally. NPIA works for the police service and is governed by a tripartite board comprising ACPO, APA, Home Office and independent members. The ACPO President is a member of the NPIA Board. The NPIA works closely with the Asset Recovery Working Group, made up of representatives from 15 different government departments and law enforcement agencies as part of the 'Payback' initiative. 'Payback' is a multi agency approach sharing best practice in using the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to reduce crime in the UK through asset recovery; taking millions of pounds out of criminals' hands. Additionally the police are using financial investigation skills and knowledge to tackle and disrupt all kinds of crime. According to Home Office figures from April 2009, the amount of assets recovered from criminals was as follows: For more details on the figures, go to http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/5.5m-seized-from-criminals.
NPIA is a single national organisation created to support effective policing. It provides expertise in areas as diverse as information and communications technology, support to information and intelligence sharing, core police processes, managing change, and recruiting, developing and deploying people.
