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Tackling and preventing cyber enabled crime – Safe Durham Partnership

Faced with an increase in online crime and harm across a range of themes including extremism, the Safe Durham Partnership chose to adopt ‘Tackling and preventing cyber-enabled crime’ as one of their six partnership priorities.

Challenges

  • Over 740 cyber-enabled crimes reported to Durham Police every quarter
  • Potential underreporting masking a more significant volume of incidents
  • Increasing awareness of online exploitation, including grooming, extremism, radicalisation, and sexual offences

Approach

They developed a holistic approach to address online crime and harm, including extremism, focusing on raising awareness, reducing risk to vulnerable groups, and building resilience against online radicalisation and cyber-crime.

Formed a dedicated cyber-enabled crime sub-group to manage response and developed an action plan with three main objectives:

  • Raising awareness about online safety in the general population
  • Reducing risk to the most vulnerable groups
  • Building resilience of local businesses against cyber crime threats

Implemented community engagement initiatives, including:

  • Interactive workshops (for example ‘Cyber Lego’ game)
  • Partnership with New College Durham for awareness sessions and student-created educational content.
  • Exploration of innovative tools like Virtual Reality headsets
  • Integrated cyber security work with ‘prevent training’ and ‘channel panel’ support
  • Focused on preventative activities and awareness raising across multiple disciplines

Outcomes and benefits

  • Over 1,000 Durham residents engaged with the Friends Against Scams initiative
  • Approximately 200 staff and students participated in cyber safety activities at New College Durham
  • Positive survey results indicating increased awareness and behaviour changes
  • Enhanced monitoring and specialized interventions for online radicalisation cases
  • Improved cross-family and network sharing of cyber safety skills

Lessons learnt

  • Community engagement is crucial for program success
  • Peer-to-peer communication of key messages is highly effective
  • Narrowing focus to high-vulnerability themes and sectors ensures efficient resource allocation
  • Incorporating fun elements in engagement activities increases participation
  • Sustainability achieved through core partnership budgets rather than relying on external funding
  • Innovative approaches in non-traditional areas can yield positive results for community safety partnerships

View original case study article at local.gov.uk