Police 'Skimming The Surface' On Cybercrime

Police are just "skimming the surface" in their efforts to tackle cybercrime, according to Britain's most senior policeman.

In an interview hosted by Sky News with six young people from children's newspaper First News, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe said hundreds of extra officers were being recruited in the fight against online crime.

He also warned police faced operational challenges combating child abuse images on the internet in the face of budget cuts and demands from other areas of policing.

"I think we're only skimming the surface," he said. "A lot of it is about stealing money and scamming, sometimes it's about stealing an idea from a business.

"In the Met we've created a squad of about 300 officers, and within the next year probably another 200, so 500 altogether.

"When there are hundreds of thousands of horrible images of children online and we're trying to track down all these people, it has proved a logistical problem.

"It's incredibly important but there are other important things too; terrorism and murder investigations, the pubs will turn out tonight and there will be fights; there will be armed robberies and anti-social behaviour.

"There is less money spent on policing so there have to be hard decisions made by society and the police. It's a massive challenge but we make reasonable decisions based upon what the threat is"

On the issue of terrorism Sir Bernard warned it was "entirely possible" there would be attack in Britain in the near future.

A poll for First News revealed more than 80% of UK children are worried about a terrorist attack taking place following the attack in Tunisia a week ago .

Sir Bernard explained that a counter-terror drill held in London recently was not in response to a particular threat, and had been planned for six months.

"You remember there were those awful attacks in Paris, and the threat level was changed," he said.

"On average, we've been arresting one person a day, throughout the United Kingdom, for terrorist offences. That's a third more than in the previous year."

His answer led another reader to ask whether it was true that phone calls and emails were being monitored by the police.

Sir Bernard stressed that, under the law, such monitoring can only take place if "people are either suspected of getting involved in serious crime, or someone's life is at risk".

Sir Bernard, who became Met Commissioner after the London riots four years ago, also said his force needed to become more representative of the diverse city.

"We're trying our best to get more people who look and feel like London into (the Met). I want more people from minorities to join the police," he said.

He also conceded that stops and searches on some members of the community were disproportionate and "some members of society were stopped more than others".

Although the number of stop-searches has been reduced by two-thirds over the past three years, Sir Bernard warned there may be a "targeted" increase in the practice, as the force tries to deal with rising levels of knife crime in the capital.