ROCU Student Economic Crime Intern; Student Placement
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Student Economic Crime Intern; Student Placement- 10-month contract
Do you want to do something worthwhile and give something back to your community during your Industrial Year? A 10-month placement with the West Midlands Regional Economic Crime Unit could be for you.
The West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU WM) is a collaboration between the police forces of Staffordshire, West Midlands, West Mercia and Warwickshire. The aim of ROCU WM is to reduce the impact and increase the disruption of serious and organised crime within the region and beyond.
RECU are looking for highly motivated, dynamic and enthusiastic individuals to join the team. In that penultimate year university students to join law enforcement on a paid placement year programme.
The internship is specifically for University Students who are able to complete a placement year in industry starting in September 2026 and have resided in the UK for at least 5 years. This is not a graduate job or entry route into policing. Suitable courses include those in the Criminology / Law, Business / Finance or STEM.
There are 2 posts available starting in September 2026:
1 post is to work as part of the Regional Economic Crime Unit’s 3P (Protect, Prepare & Prevent) Team to support the development and delivery of key strategies to help protect and prepare the region and UK against Economic Crime and to prevent and deter individuals from becoming involved in or continuing to commit such Crimes.
1 post is to work as part of the Regional Economic Crime Unit’s Analysis Team to support investigations through gathering evidence from both open and closed sources, develop intelligence, analyse and produce reports and develop projects in relation to current themes and trends.
3P Intern position:
• Build robust relationships with the forces in our region and provide them opportunities to improve their ability to investigate economic crime
• Provide training to areas of policing that may not be able to readily access training around economic crime.
• Promote the use of RISE and similar programmes to prevent those who have committed a low-level offence becoming actively involved in high harm fraud and money laundering.
• Attend force visits and complete actions that arise from meetings.
• Provide training around tackling economic crime to partnership agencies who may otherwise be unaware of ROCU or need support developing best practise in their organisation.
• Identify good practise and share this across the network of forces and partnership agencies. This may be in the form of newsletters, via comms teams, protect campaigns or CPD events.
• Review the impact protect messaging has on fraud activity and offer ongoing advice on how campaigns should be developed and delivered across the region/nationally.
• Support forces during intensification periods and attend both briefings/debriefings to share findings that might support the region in developing better practise.
• Improve the way we identify repeat victims and vulnerable victims and ensure that law enforcement and partnership agencies are following the correct procedures to prevent them being targeted again.
• Support Analysis project development, campaigns, events and other tasks as required
Analysis Intern
• Support investigations through gathering evidence from both open and closed sources.
• Develop intelligence, analyse and produce reports and develop projects in relation to current themes and trends.
• Support and develop the research and development function, horizon scanning for future threats.
• Own and develop projects around emerging technologies and criminal methodologies. (Use of Cryptocurrency, Internet of Things, Crime as a Service, Illicit trading of commodities on the dark web, Virtual Reality).
• Develop and implement new software and hardware solutions, exploiting and targeting criminal use of technology.
• Build effective working relationships with external agencies, academia and Industry to maximise learning opportunities and advance our operational capabilities.
• Provide advice and support to the wider ROCU with the development and delivery of digital tactics.
• Deliver presentations to Law Enforcement and partners relating to ongoing research and development projects.
• Support 3P project development, campaigns, events and other tasks as required.
Both roles will need to ensure security and maintain the integrity of all systems and processes.
They will fall under the direction of the ROCU, so will have both a local and regional responsibility. Post holders may be expected to work unsociable hours at short notice and potentially travel within the UK.
Conduct other associated tasks that are considered appropriate given the rapid changes in technology, and embrace any new working practices which are introduced to deal with those changes.
Any additional tasks relevant to the role as directed by RECU supervision
Skills and Experience:
Essential
• Must possess integrity and professionalism at the highest standard.
• Experience of writing reports and/or has great attention to detail
• Willing and able to work unsupervised and to take responsibility and ownership for specific workstreams.
• Tactful, diplomatic and able to engage effectively with stakeholders of all ranks and positions, both within and outside of policing.
• Self-motivated and well organised
• Feels confident working with large data sets and organising data/intel in a cohesive manner
• Has experience with presenting information in a concise and coherent manner
• Feels confident presenting in front of groups - Good verbal and presentation skills, adjusting communication style to suit different audiences.
• A keen interest in law enforcement work, with an understanding of the current issues around economic crime.
Desirable -
• Knowledge of the legislation regarding the Fraud Act, as well as those offences associated with the Proceeds of Crime Act.
• A good understanding of money laundering concepts, including international money laundering networks.
• Experience working with large data sets, especially with a focus on presenting findings from large data sets to a lay audience
• Experience around social media, marketing or graphic design.
• Experience of evidence handling, and awareness of court procedures.
Contact:
Any questions please email RECU_enquiries@westmidlands.police.uk
Vetting:
Successful applicants will be required to pass Management Vetting and Security Clearance scrutiny prior to commencing their role, this will include a full background & financial disclosure as part of the vetting process.
Location:
City centre, Birmingham. Work remotely and across force areas, under minimal supervision. Flexibility to be able to respond to changing situations, which may require working from other locations or parts of the force/region, and potentially weekend hours.
Interview:
Interview expected to take place in December
Start date:
Post holder to commence their role on 8th September 2026. (Vetting dependent)
Throughout the process of the application there will a drop-in session to help gain further understanding of the role and an opportunity to ask questions – details of this session will be provided during the application process.
There will also be a development session with regards to interview process - details of this session will be provided during the application process.
West Midlands Police is a Disability Confident Leader - the highest level an organisation can achieve under the scheme run by the Department of Work and Pensions. As part of our commitment we operate a ‘Disability Confident Interview Scheme’ - all candidates who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the role will be offered an interview.
It is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the essential criteria for the job. For example: in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. In these circumstances, the employer could select the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job, as they would do for non-disabled applicants.
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