Cyber safety specialists hunted by Home Office to battle crime of their spare time
The Home Office has launched a drive for volunteers with cyber security skills to become special constables to beef up the response to soaring levels of digital crime
Around 90% of all crimes now have a digital element(Image: Getty Images/Image Source)
Cyber security experts will be recruited to catch crooks in their spare time under a drive to fight digital crime.
Policing Minister Sarah Jones revealed plans to open the doors to tech experts becoming special constables as 90% of all crimes now have a digital element, either through social media or use of phones and computers.
Special constables are volunteer officers – with the same powers of arrest – who traditionally focus on local beat policing. But ministers are now seeking volunteers with cyber skills to beef up the response to digital crime.
Ms Jones said: “Crime is increasingly digital, so our volunteers must be too. We’re opening the doors to cyber and tech experts to join the Specials and help keep people safe online and on our streets.
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“Under the previous government, we saw an unacceptable decline in the number of people volunteering to help keep their communities safe. That changes now.”
Since 2012, special constable numbers in England and Wales have plummeted to just 5,534 as of March 2025. This is down 73% from 20,343 in 2012.
The Home Office has vowed to streamline the recruitment process to make it easier for people to volunteer, and to incentivise existing special constables to stay in their roles.
A new task force will also be stepped up, which will include senior policing figures, to reverse the decline in numbers.
The move comes as part of a package of reforms unveiled today, billed as the biggest shake-up to policing in decades. The Home Secretary is expected to slash the number of police forces in England and Wales down from 43 in a radical restructuring of the service.
Ms Mahmood, who is believed to be alarmed by the lack of accountability, will order forces to publish an online dashboard to show how they are performing on key priorities, including 999 response times, neighbourhood team sizes and solving crimes.
The Home Secretary will have a new power to send in specialist teams to turn around failing forces, and will be able to sack chief constables. It comes after she was unable to fire West Midlands boss Craig Guildford, who presented incorrect information to MPs on the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa. He made the decision to retire days after she declared she had no confidence in him.
The policing white paper, to be unveiled today, is expected to include measures to improve police vetting. Recruits with a caution or conviction for violence against women and girls will be barred and stronger requirements to suspend officers accused of crimes will be introduced.
Red tape keeping officers chained to their desks will be ripped up to put more bobbies on the beat. And a named, contactable officer will be put in every council ward in an extension of an existing pledge to beef up neighbourhood policing.
