Halifax Regional Police are taking a number of steps to tackle the issue of cybercrime, Supt. Jim Perrin said during a presentation for the Board of Police Commissioners on Monday.
As of Sept. 21, there were 304 cybercrime incidents in the municipality this year recorded by police, according to the presentation.
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“Some of the information that’s out there is that 80 per cent of cybercrimes are not reported,” Perrin said, adding that those figures would be “staggering” to the municipality’s number of cases.
The reasons why some people wouldn’t want to come forward include embarrassment and doubt that police could do anything to help, he added. Also, business owners may feel that revealing that a cybercrime impacted their business may make customers lose their confidence.
Perrin said that there is room for the department to do better in regards to handling cybercrime cases.
“Some we’ve been able to respond quickly. We also have some reports that were made to us that we didn’t handle all that well, and not because we didn’t want to, it’s because the officers that were dealing with it had a lack of understanding,” he said.
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Among other measures, the department is trialing a cyber unit, and every officer will undergo more related training.
During the question-and-answer period post-presentation, District 6 Coun. Tony Mancini, a commissioner, said that a public education element regarding cybercrime is important.