PSNI cyber crime team viewed eight million images last week

The PSNI specialist team conducts investigations into incidents ranging from sexual exploitation and blackmail to complex frauds, murders, terrorist incidents and computer enabled attacks on large businesses

A specialist PSNI cyber crime team viewed more than eight million photographs and video clips last week in the hunt for sex offenders.

The vast majority were viewed using specialist software which identifies potentially illegal images, which were then viewed by members of the team.

The police said that was a typical week for the team.

The PSNI said cyber crime now impacts on almost everything police officers do.

The officer in charge of the PSNI's cyber crime centre, Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr, said the nature of policing had changing significantly in recent years.

"When a serious crime such as an armed robbery has been committed, members of the public see the police response to it in their community," he said.

"They see uniformed officers, usually in marked cars, and often with lights and sirens, respond to that emergency situation. There is a visible, tangible response to criminal activity.

"But when it comes to cyber crime, the public don't see the crime, unless they are the victim. And they don't see our response. Not because it isn't there but because the response has to be as discreet as the crime itself because of the hidden and technically sophisticated world in which this takes place."

The specialist team conducts investigations into incidents ranging from sexual exploitation and blackmail to complex frauds, murders, terrorist incidents and computer enabled attacks on large businesses.

ACC Kerr said officers across the PSNI deal with cyber crime on a daily basis

In the last financial year, the PSNI examined approximately 6,000 mobile phones and 450 computers.

The cyber crime centre has 21 specialist officers, but the PSNI said that is just the core team and that several hundred others throughout Northern Ireland have received specialist training in the examination of digital media and internet research.

"We have officers across the PSNI dealing with cyber crime on a daily basis," said ACC Kerr.

"They are working hard to keep people safe online from this often unseen threat. The cyber crime centre will work in partnership with the local community, business and industry and law enforcement partners nationally and internationally.

"I have no doubt the threat will grow. The test we face, as a police service and as a community, is how we deal with it.

"Online safety should be everyone's priority. How police deal with rising demand to tackle cyber crime against a backdrop of reduced resources in the visible world will be an ongoing challenge."