A business-led intelligence gathering initiative that targets organised travelling criminals and packages cases for police action has launched new pricing. This allows for lower fees for new members in return for access to their crime data.
Established over a year ago, the not-for-profit Business Crime Intelligence Bureau (BCIB) – a private sector initiative that seeks to link businesses and law enforcers – has led officers to a number of serious cross border arrests and prosecutions involving tens of thousands of pounds. To date, membership of the BCIB has been retailer-led, but the aim is to bring in all types of business sector.<br><br>Amanda Oliver, pictured, BCIB Managing Director says that the formation of the BCIB was in response to the growing numbers of unsolved linked crimes, which due to budget and resource challenges for police forces were not being investigated, particularly where the criminals travel across force jurisdiction into neighbouring forces – sometimes, even when there is overwhelming evidence to link the Modus Operandi (MO). Businesses were not sharing their crime information with each other within their business sectors, let alone across other business sectors and therefore the patterns and size of the organised crime affecting them was not being identified. This in turn meant that it was not visible to the Police and businesses were not able to influence Police response.<br><br>Working with all of the UK’s 43 police forces, the bureau is funded by The Co-operative Group, Argos, Iceland, Homebase, W H Smith, Midlands Co-operative, Mid Counties Co-operative, DBC Food Services and Shop Direct.<br><br>Funded by the retailers, but supported by ACPO and Regional Intelligence Units across the UK, the BCIB analyses and shares the crime data between the contributing partners who have suffered at the hands of organised criminal teams in what is termed ‘level two’ offences – cross border incidents that share the same modus operandi (MO).<br><br>The bureau is also working with the Government-led multi-agency GAIN initiative which shares intelligence with bodies including local authority enforcement officers and HMRC. This allows for cross-agency co-operation in order to detect and deter the offenders. <br><br>“We are doing fantastically well for the members we currently represent, but we could be achieving more if we had access to additional data held by others. This would enable us to link more cases for further police prosecutions and have a major impact upon cross border serious organised crime,” said Amanda Oliver.<br><br>Successes to date include the co-ordination of 140 offences across the estate of one member, nationally. This information was packaged, with the offender details and a lead force identified to progress the enquiry, which led to an arrest shortly afterwards. <br><br>In another case, six linked offences were initially identified by one member of BCIB. An intelligence package was developed which identified over 40 incidents nationally, including the targeting of other major retailers (some non-members). The case was referred to a joint agency Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU) for further development and inclusion in the Organised Crime Group (OCGs) mapping process.<br><br>The BCIB hosted a joint meeting between various members and a number of police forces to co-ordinate action following a large number of burglaries across the country. This resulted in a robust, pro-active response from the represented police forces, which is still ongoing. Running parallel, were a number of preventative issues to be actioned by the members. A number of other investigations are being progressed with various police forces, RIUs and partner agencies.<br><br>“Over the last year, the processes developed by the BCIB are beginning to see real signs of success with the existing membership we have, but I am delighted to say we can now offer a a different pricing structure for members. In order to build on what we have achieved to date with all agencies working together, the more member data we have to work with the better. This way we can join up more of the dotted lines that link organised gangs across the UK and produce positive results for members,” she said.<br><br>BCIB started with each of the founding members paying a set annual fee, but the new pricing structure will be determined by the number of sites a retailer has. For example, <br>smaller retailers with up to 200 sites will be a charged £200 per month, which means a cost of £1.00 per store per month for those with 200 sites. Retailers with up to 500 sites will be asked to contribute £400 per month, which works out to £0.80 per store per month for 500 stores. Those with over 500 sites will be asked for £800 per month, which would mean £1 cost per month per store for a business with 800 sites. Other businesses outside of the retail sector, will be calculated on an individual basis allowing for a flexible approach based on business profile. <br><br>“The BCIB is about sharing crime intelligence, but it goes beyond that. It analyses the data and takes it to a new level of identifying and linking real organised crime activity and doing something positive with that intelligence. It is joined up thinking that will give police and other agencies the material to be able to effectively investigate, prosecute cases and identify trends which link to other serious and organised crime which can help businesses and police to be more proactive,” says Amanda Oliver.<br><br>“We have a lot of business support already, and serious interest from a number of business sectors, in addition to members in the retail sector. However, we need buy-in from others to make it work effectively. We are a not for profit organisation which means we do not have a commercial agenda. We are in this to help the police and businesses to help themselves and each other solve cross border, series linked crime,” she added.<br><br>About BCIB<br><br>A privately-funded business crime intelligence operation it aims to provide the police with ‘gift-wrapped’ cases to prosecute and businesses, across all sectors, to map serious and organised crime offences and even predict where gangs may strike in the future.<br><br>It exchanges analysed intelligence with the 10 Regional Intelligence Units (RIU) nationally and can access crime intelligence from a number of other sources to provide agencies and business partners with a rounded picture of crimes which are linked; something which has previously remained invisible due to the lack of business crime intelligence sharing and a subsequent inability to build up a broader national footprint of organised criminal activity.
