TruckPol resurrection will be run by police
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By Derren Hayes
THE REBORN TruckPol is to be a police-led initiative when it is launched officially in January as part of a broader anti-business crime unit, the senior officer who will oversee its operation has confirmed.
Inspector Richard Stones of Nottinghamshire Police said that at a meeting of key stakeholders last week (CM 22 November), it was decided that TruckPol will be incorporated into a “national business crime solution” .
This will be run and managed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and funded through the National Business Crime Forum (NBCF).
Under the new model, information about truck crime gathered by police forces will be passed into an intelligence unit called the English Resilience Hub (ERH). This is made up of ACPO analysts and those employed by the Business Crime Intelligence Bureau (BCIB). The ERH will also collect crime reports from town centre partnerships and the British Oil Society Syndicate so that data can be analysed and information about known offenders and patterns of crime shared with retailers and hauliers.
Stones said he hoped the NBCF, which is a not-for-profit organisation, would be funded through sponsorship and donations from trade bodies and businesses, including the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and transport companies.
After TruckPol, which was part of ACPO, collapsed earlier this year due to government funding being withdrawn, it was proposed that the specialist freight unit would be resurrected through a partnership between the RHA, BCIB and NBCF. However, a three-month trial is set to end in December as some police forces were reluctant to participate.
Stones said: “This will be a far more comprehensive and collaborative intelligence picture than we previously had.”