Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

A FORCE FIT FOR THE FUTURE
Policing Europe
The Rt Hon Charles Clarke explains how
intelligence and international agency co-operation
are key in tackling the threat of global crime
The Rt Hon Charles Clarke was
Home Secretary from 2004-2006
in Tony Blair’s government
Crime is now global. The major
areas of criminal enterprise
are organised by international
syndicates, use international lines of
distribution and take advantage of
differing national approaches to policing
and criminal justice.
The threat which these organisations
offer to our societies is set out clearly
in both the Europol Organised Crime
Threat Assessment 2011 1 and the
UK Threat Assessment 2 , published
by the Home Office on behalf of the
UK law enforcement community and
government departments.
These conclude that the greatest
threats to our communities come
from drugs, trafficked to Europe from
throughout the world; organised
immigration crime, including human
trafficking and people smuggling frauds
of many different types including
counterfeiting and trafficking of
weapons and cigarettes.
In addition the constant threat of
terrorism remains a significant threat
throughout Europe.
Essential techniques for these
criminals include identity theft,
effective use of the internet and
money-laundering, all of which are also
international in character.
The crime syndicates themselves are
sophisticated, wealthy and use the most
up-to-date forms of technology. Their
strategy is to exploit the weak points in
the law enforcement enemy which they
confront daily.
This is all true globally, but Europe is
an important sphere of their activity and
requires a coherent European response.
In these rapidly changing
circumstances, the challenge for policing
across Europe, including in the UK, is to
bring together law enforcement in a way
which brings these criminals to justice,
makes it far more difficult for them to
operate effectively and so directly reduces
crime. The two core requirements for
success in achieving this are enhanced
high-quality use of intelligence and
effective operational partnership and
co-operation both between countries and
between agencies within countries.
Intelligence
The use of better intelligence, derived
from the widest possible range of reliable
sources, is both essential and controversial.
It is essential because knowledge about
potential crimes, crimes which have
already been committed, and the ways in
which crime is organised is necessary in
order to contest crime.
A variety of methods can be used
to acquire this knowledge, including
interception of phone calls and use of
telecommunications data; monitoring
of travel across international borders;
development of DNA, fingerprint and
vehicle databases; and direct surveillance,
CCTV and automatic numberplate
recognition. Identity cards, passports,
driving licences and other forms of
identification such as bank cards both
protect the individual and can help
identify the movement of criminals.
These techniques have been used
successfully both to identify and bring to
justice those who have committed past
crimes, and to prevent planned future
crime.
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