Future of vehicle crime intelligence unit secured for now

The future of the police force’s vehicle crime intelligence service has been safeguarded for now, Commercialmotor.com can reveal.

Following the closure of Truckpol in March, AVCIS was placed under review, with an options paper submitted to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) for discussion.

However, a recent high level meeting has ensured the service will continue its work.

An ACPO spokeswoman, says: “A decision has been made by chief officers at ACPO cabinet that AVCIS should continue to operate in its existing format within a lead force arrangement.”

Despite this, it will remain under review, with the work and service it provides continuing to be looked at in line with changing police priorities and resources.

AVCIS was set up in December 2006, following closure of the National Criminal Intelligence Service’s Organised Vehicle Crime Section. It began operations in September 2007 and has since recovered £42m of stolen vehicles.

The unit is currently funded by the Finance and Leasing Association, NFU Mutual, and security firms Tracker and Cobra with some public financing, although a Home Office support was withdrawn in April 2011.

Truckpol's last crime report revealed fuel theft was the most common truck related crime in 2011.