Police Now has announced a new partnership with the City of London Police to recruit, train and develop exceptional new detectives, dedicated to protecting the nation from economic crime – including fraud and cybercrime.
This new stream of Police Now’s National Detective Programme will pilot in March 2025 in the City of London Police, the national lead police force for this specialist area of policing.
Economic crime amounts to almost half of all recorded crime in the UK. It has a significant impact on the public, with criminals often preying on the most vulnerable. At Police Now’s recent induction event, offer holders preparing to join the stream heard from City of London Police senior leaders, who reflected on the enormous impact their investigations have had for the public – including working with national banks to bring down an international organised crime group and seize millions in laundered money.
This builds on the momentum of another Police Now pilot last year, which saw the organisation successfully recruit graduates directly into SO15 – the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command – and is now expanding across a number of regions in England.
Temporary Assistant Commissioner Nik Adams, the City of London Police lead for fraud and cybercrime, said: “Our partnership with Police Now is crucial for training the next generation of officers tackling economic crime.
“With fraud and cybercrime making up 40% of all crime in the UK, it’s vital we ensure our officers are prepared to navigate the increasingly sophisticated world of fraud. Criminals are constantly evolving their methods, and we must do the same to stay one step ahead. We’re excited to be working with Police Now in this capacity. We can’t wait for the new officers to start with us. They will be trailblazers for future direct entry detective routes into specialist fraud, economic and cyber crime roles across the UK.”
Police Now, a Times Top 100 Graduate Employer, works in partnership with forces across England and Wales to support brilliant and diverse graduates into policing via its high-intensity two-year programmes. The organisation specialises in identifying opportunities to innovate national police training and recruitment and consistently recruits stronger diversity to its programmes than policing achieves nationally – driving policing to become truly representative of the communities it serves.
For this cohort of the National Detective Programme, Police Now received over 3,100 applications of which 63% of applicants are female and 21% are from Black, Asian or ethnic minority backgrounds. The new economic crime stream of the programme received over 250 applications – around 18 applications per place on the programme. Of these, 51% are female applicants and 36% are from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background.
