The project to improve the fight against economic crime is divided into two large groups: it was important for parts of the criminal police to have new, state-of-the-art facilities, but for experts dealing with economic crime daily to be allowed to enrich knowledge at various seminars and other countries. A total of around 3,000 staff have been trained in the project.
"Let us not hide – training is expensive in these areas. This applies to areas of expert training in cyber security, to economic crime, and money laundering. A very substantial thing that was in this section, which maybe until now had not been developed in the State Police - everything that is related to the detection of environmental crimes," said Normunds Grūbis, deputy chief of the State Police, project manager.
During the project, in 2022, a new centralized Cybercrime Combating Administration was also established, which until then investigated some crimes in the composition of the Economic Crimes Combating Administration.
"Cyber crime is the sort of thing where what was current today in the morning will no longer be relevant in the evening. And we must constantly evolve, constantly [improve] knowledge, be modern, and keep track of the training and highlights. And we continually use that knowledge in our day-to-day work," said Oļegs Filatovs, deputy chief of the Police Cybercrime Prevention Administration.
Guidelines for a new digital platform were also developed during the project. It would speed up investigations and make work easier for investigators.
"All the algorithms of action would have been described and the action would have been written, the notes would have been written by specialists. This means that the goal would be for a young police officer who has little experience, who doesn't fully understand how to handle a particular situation, to use the tool," explained Vitālijs Polovinskos, deputy chief of the Police's Economic Crimes Prevention Administration.
The total cost of the project is 8.5 million. Most of the costs went to construction.
