Information about the role of an economic crime investigator, including the role purpose, key responsibilities and the skills required.
About the role
An economic crime investigator is a financial crime position within the investigation sector of policing. It's a service deliverer role in the policing professional profiles.
Role purpose
The economic crime investigator gathers and reviews material, intelligence and evidence and undertakes crime investigation duties relating to economic crime. Those are crimes that might involve, but are not limited to:
- fraud
- money laundering
- bribery and corruption
- forgery and counterfeiting
Investigators gather materials and intelligence to support the disruption, prevention and investigation of economic crime, and increase asset recovery opportunities. They manage the issues relating to harm, loss and susceptibility and support victims who have been impacted by economic crime.
Key responsibilities
Key responsibility statements show the accountabilities for someone in this role. They focus on what is done, not how it is done.
- Collecting and gathering material and intelligence from a range of sources that are appropriate to economic crime investigations. Recording and retaining evidence in a format that is evidentially admissible to support the investigative process.
- Identifying and planning own investigative actions needed to identify lines of enquiry and pursue those suspected of involvement in economic crime. Considering resources, priorities and proportionality to achieve investigatory objectives.
- Assessing threat, harm and risk and developing and implementing plans and strategies to disrupt and prevent economic crime.
- Using relevant economic crime legislation to apprehend and manage suspects, using the range of regulatory sanctions.
- Completing risk assessments and providing appropriate support to protect victims during an investigation. This includes creating a victim strategy and working with the victim care unit and others, to ensure the wellbeing of victims and mitigate against future susceptibility to economic crime.
- Working with partner agencies, specialists and managers to harness specialist capabilities to maximise the effectiveness of the investigation.
- Managing materials and preparing reports on the outcome of investigations to build and manage case files and fulfilling disclosure requirements to comply with relevant legislation.
- Providing advice and support to colleagues, both nationally and internationally, to progress ongoing economic crime investigations.
- Undertaking international enquiries, using applicable legislation and guidance to support international economic crime investigations.
- Ensuring all material, including exhibits generated by economic crime investigations, is recovered, examined, and retained in accordance with legislation and policy.
Competencies, values and core skills
The competency and values framework (CVF) provides clear expectations for everyone working in policing. It describes the behaviours required by police officers and staff to be effective in their roles and uphold the Code of Ethics for policing.
Competencies
The CVF has six competencies, which are split into levels. These levels can be used flexibly to allow for a better fit with frontline and non-frontline policing roles, and at different levels of seniority.
This role should be operating at or working towards the following competencies.
- We are emotionally aware – Level 1: practitioner
- We take ownership – Level 2: supervisor or middle manager
- We collaborate – Level 1: practitioner
- We support and inspire – Level 1: practitioner
- We analyse critically – Level 2: supervisor or middle manager
- We are innovative and open-minded – Level 1: practitioner
Values
The CVF has three values. These values apply to everyone in policing, regardless of their role or seniority.
Core skills
All roles in policing have nine core skills in common. Skills are split into levels that represent the different levels of policing.
This role should be operating at or working towards the following core skills.
- Communicating and influencing – Level 1
- Problem solving – Level 1
- Performance management– Level 1
- Relationship management – Level 1
- Change management – Level 1
- Managing people – Level 1
- Managing resources – Level 1
- Planning – Level 1
- Use of IT – Level 1
Education, qualifications and experience
To achieve effective performance in the role, the following standards and qualifications should be met.
Previous education, qualifications and experience
- Demonstrable knowledge of operational planning in law enforcement activities.
- Demonstrable experience of complex information gathering and problem solving.
- A detailed understanding of the criminal justice system.
In-role education, qualifications and experience
- Undertake training to achieve professionalising investigation programme (PIP) level 1 accreditation.
- Undertake PIP 2 investigator learning and development to achieve PIP 2 investigator accreditation.
Continuing professional development
Continuing professional development (CPD) enables everyone in policing to develop and gain recognition for their professional skills, knowledge and competence.
CPD ensures that we continue to provide high-quality policing to keep the public safe and help to drive career aspirations. Discussion of CPD is usually included as part of a professional development review (PDR) conversation.
Learning and accreditation
- Assessed competence against relevant professional standards for this role is required to achieve PIP 2 investigator accreditation. Maintenance of this accreditation requires the demonstration of continued competence against professional standards as well as evidence of CPD, in line with the College’s model.
- Complete all core training and learning as required by force.
- Any exemptions to learning and accreditation requirements are at chief constable discretion, in line with the local force policy.
Professional development
This role should consider the following CPD:
- maintaining PIP level 2 accreditation by keeping a record of recent experience of conducting different types of serious and complex investigations which evidences the knowledge and skills gained
- completing the City of London Police Economic and Cyber Crime Academy economic crime investigation foundation course
- completing the City of London Police Economic and Cyber Crime Academy economic crime specialist investigator programme
- completing the City of London Police Economic and Cyber Crime Academy management of economic crime investigation course programme
- maintaining an up-to-date understanding of police regulations and College of Policing guidance, good practice and any local policy applicable to the operational police context
- maintaining and updating knowledge, understanding and skills relating to criminology, legislation, policy and practice across all functional policing areas of operational policing
- maintaining knowledge and understanding of new approaches identified by evidence-based policing research and problem-solving, testing and synthesising into working practice, championing innovation and changes to practice
- maintaining a working knowledge and understanding of new and evolving crime threats and priorities and current good practice to tackle these to enable a pro-active and preventative approach
- understanding the impact of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) Learning the Lessons reports relating to investigation, such as the importance of case file management
- familiarising self with other relevant IOPC reports, such as police use of force: evidence from complaints, investigations and public perception and relevant His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) reports, such as the PEEL assessments
- reading the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance on investigative practices, relations with the police and apply to own practice
- regularly sharing good practice for investigations with colleagues by contributing to relevant knowledge hub communities or delivering informal briefings
- maintaining a working knowledge of how other government agencies, such as the National Crime Agency (NCA) and His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), can assist in the investigation of cases
- understanding and developing knowledge of other roles within policing, for example, by working alongside other colleagues in another department to further operational knowledge of each other’s roles
- coaching and/or mentoring less experienced colleagues, such as PIP1 investigators, and delivering training sessions to support learning and development
- where appropriate, keeping up to date with guidance on conducting the performance development review (PDR) process and applying this to own work
- where appropriate, maintaining knowledge and skills relating to work-based assessments to conduct these when necessary
Related roles
You can find other service deliverer roles in the: