Comments for ABM's crime and investigation blog

Comment on Confidential informant shoots himself – who is to blame? by Martin Weber

Martin Weber — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:56:44 +0000

You’ve omitted one of the most crucial points of this story – the informant was only 21 years old. Yes, that classes him as an adult, but did he really understand what he was getting in to??

Comment on 15,000 people fight back against fraudsters… by Alastair Luff

Alastair Luff — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:13:33 +0000

Interestingly enough, this announcement also coincided with the announcement that just over 15,000 incidents of fraud through online dating web sites had been logged during the first six months of this year. It appears that some who have forged relationships with some misrepresented individuals have been coerced out of up to £100,000 a time. These have mainly been claims for money to help sick children. Interestingly to know that in some cases trying to find a new relationship can be a terrible ordeal….

Comment on Cheap shopping and lower crime – do drug dealers help the community? by Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:19:12 +0000

To suggest that drugs bring benefits to communities sounds dangerous to me.

Comment on International criminal markets have become major centres of power, UNODC report shows by Ed Mills

Ed Mills — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:29:57 +0000

The response implications surrounding counterfeit products (p190) are particularly worth noting:

“It is imperative that measures be taken to protect the licit supply chain. If reputable wholesalers and retailers assure that their sources are clean, then the buying of counterfeits will remain a marginal activity. These retailers should be motivated to protect their reputations, but those found negligent in screening the products they sell should be held liable. Those outlets that specialise in discounted goods must be scrutinised. On an industrial level, purchasing agents must be carefully monitored. Policy should not encourage buyers to place price over reputability. The public cannot be prevented from buying cheap goods, but consumers should at least be assured that they get what they pay for.”

Efficient management of global investigations is needed to achieve this. See http://www.abmsoftware.com/intellicase

Comment on Do “Joined up” systems, people and processes reduce investigation costs and improve results? by Alastair Luff

Alastair Luff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:02:10 +0000

This is an interesting area around what is perceived as value. Far too much time and money is spent on replacing IT systems where in reality the process is inefficient. We have seen a lot of press made of records management systems replacing multiple systems proporting great cost savings. In actual fact the new system tends to involve processes which are more complex, inefficient, requires more people to manage them and takes the organisation backwards in terms of operational benefit. More should be spent looking at how best to manage the process than just throwing bigger IT systems at the problem.

Comment on UK Police to save money by John Fisher

John Fisher — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:09:59 +0000

Surely the important question is how can police forces change their purchasing arrangements without spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on consultancy to tell them how to do it?

Comment on UK Security Breaches by Adam Field

Adam Field — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:22:42 +0000

Interesting (and slightly worrying) to see that the theft of credit card information accounts for 85% of the type of data stolen. I’m surprised that Intellectual property theft is not higher but suppose that it is harder to track than credit card details.

Comment on Consultancy culture by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:52:02 +0000

The question remains, what do you do with £71M of consultants and have these roles been replaced? Getting the bill down to £17M is excellent, but if £54M has been added to the salary bill, then no cost has been saved (actually it will go up).