The police also have to try to guard against other types of ICT crime such as hacking, virus creation and money laundering.

CCTV cameras are widespread and can record activity at a fixed spot such as inside a shop or on a street corner. The cameras may also act as a deterrent in known trouble spots.

Detection of crime is assisted by the use of large databases of known or suspected criminals, and patterns between crimes can also be analysed.

Passports are now machine-readable and can be used to track the movement of people between countries and there are now agreements between the police forces of different countries to share the information they have.

The Criminal Records Bureau has a large database of known offenders and workers such as teachers have to now be checked to see if they have a history of convictions.