The Police National E-Crime Unit (PCeU) is a part of the Specialist Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, dedicated to combating e-crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The unit has a national remit, and was created in April 2008[1] to centralise the efforts of all police forces in the UK (excluding Scotland) to fight all forms of E-crime.
The unit's responsibilities are quite specific and include activities once carried out by other bodies while excluding other activities, currently done by others.[2]
The unit's stated mission is to improve the police response to victims of e-crime by developing the capability of the police service across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, co-ordinating the law enforcement approach to all types of e-crime, and by providing a national investigative capability for the most serious e-crime incidents.
The Police Central e-crime Unit (PCEU) was created on the 1st October 2008 and is responsible for improving the UK national polcing response to cyber crime. The unit is housed within the Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD6) part of the Metropolitan Police Service based in central London. As the PCeU is part an ACPO Police Force it has jursidiction within England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However the unit works closely with the SCDEA in Scotland and international law enforcement. The PCeU has a seat at the table at both Europol and Interpol cyber workstreams.
The PCeU is one of strands of work within the ACPO e-crime programme led by DAC Janet WILLIAMS. There are nine strands of work in total; Central e-Crime Structure, Olympics, Training Recruitment and Retention, Regional e-Crime Units, Forensics, Legal Issues, Prevention, Increasing Knowledge for Action, Research & Development.