Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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. 98 | POLICING UK
A FORCE FIT FOR THE FUTURE “European intelligence sharing improves our capacity to fight criminal organisations.” They are, however, controversial. There are worries about civil liberties and images of a ‘Big Brother’ society. And so their use does arouse real opposition and efforts to prevent their legal use. European intelligence sharing improves our capacity to fight criminal organisations. Current arrangements and planned improvements include allowing police and law enforcement organisations access to the EURODAC asylum database 3 ; developing the SIS/ SIS2 4 databases; development of the VIS database 5 ; and EU-wide (except for the UK opt-out) rules which link databases containing DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration records. Operational co-operation The second core requirement for law enforcement success is strong operational co-operation between police and security forces. This has already developed over some years. EUROPOL 6 already co-ordinates over 12,000 cross-border investigations every year and the relatively new European Police College (CEPOL) 7 fosters joint working. Strategic targeting, across borders, permits resources and effort to be focused more effectively. For example the FRONTEX 8 agency, which is designed to strengthen the EU external land, sea and air borders, co-ordinates police and security action against immigration crime, although it is greatly limited by lack of resources. This type of police co-operation is also important more widely, for example with countries which are the source of much of the criminality that the EU and the UK faces, for example China, Turkey and Russia. INTERPOL 9 operates worldwide, but such co-operation could be strengthened. The greatest worries about such co-operation are usually not those of principle. Co-operation is difficult to oppose! The two problems are trust and resources. Mutual trust is essential for co-operation, which is a two-way process. Police corruption is always a danger, provoked as it is by criminal organisations, and in some countries the problem is widespread. That removes the trust that makes co-operation possible. And at a time of public spending cuts across Europe, the EU itself commits far less resources to fighting crime than it should and many national police and security organisations see the benefits of international co-operation as marginal, although in fact joint and targeted working against international crime syndicates are essential to reduce local domestic crime. Judicial co-operation Beyond purely policing issues, judicial co-operation is the final weapon that strengthens law enforcement against criminality, including aspects such as the power of arrest, extradition and sentencing policy. EUROJUST 10 is the EU agency which promotes such cooperation, of which the most significant, and controversial in the UK, is the European Arrest Warrant. This has significantly speeded up the ability to bring suspected criminals to justice and has made it more difficult for UK criminals to escape justice in the rest of the European Union. An illustration is ‘Operation Captura’ 11 , for which the European Arrest Warrant was essential, which helped bring to justice 44 of the 60 most wanted criminals on the Mediterranean coast of Spain (the socalled ‘Costa del Crime’). The UK’s ‘opt-in’ decision By 31 May 2014, the UK government has to decide whether to stay ‘opted-in’ to 133 European Union measures for police and criminal justice co-operation, or not. The House of Commons Library provides a full background in its Briefing Notes 60 and 6268. 12 UK policing and crime prevention would be significantly strengthened by full UK participation in the European intelligence databases, European operational co-operation and European judicial co-operation. UK withdrawal would significantly damage our ability to contest major criminality, with significant implications for crime in Britain. 1 www.europol.europa.eusitesdefaultfilespublications octa_2011_1.pdf 2 www.soca.gov.uk/threats 3 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference= MEMO/12/390&type=HTML 4 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/ policies/borders-and-visas/schengen-information-system/ index_en.htm 5 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/ borders-and-visas/visa-information-system/index_en.htm 6 www.europol.europa.eu/ 7 www.cepol.europa.eu/ 8 www.frontex.europa.eu/ 9 www.interpol.int/ 10 http://eurojust.europa.eu/Pages/home.aspx 11 A joint venture launched jointly by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the charity Crimestoppers 12 www.parliament.ukbriefing-papersSN060.pdf and www.parliament.ukbriefing-papersSN0626.pdf POLICING UK | 99
Page 1 and 2:
Priorities and pressures: a year of
Page 3 and 4:
Editor Peter Neyroud Publishing dir
Page 5 and 6:
92 Operation Bulwark Sue Sim report
Page 7 and 8:
OVERVIEW “It is to be hoped that
Page 9 and 10:
OVERVIEW “Whatever strategies the
Page 11 and 12:
OVERVIEW “Another attempt at chan
Page 13 and 14:
OVERVIEW “We’re giving the poli
Page 15 and 16:
OVERVIEW of the PCC, Chief Constabl
Page 17 and 18:
OVERVIEW “A key test of any polic
Page 19 and 20:
OVERVIEW “Only if everyone - forc
Page 21 and 22:
Innovative austerity? We are used t
Page 23 and 24:
OVERVIEW “If a crime is deterred
Page 25 and 26:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “If t
Page 27 and 28:
SPONSORED FEATURE Case Study: Crawl
Page 29 and 30:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “For
Page 31 and 32:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “The
Page 33 and 34:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME Who do
Page 35 and 36:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “Many
Page 37 and 38:
REGISTER NOW Tuesday 26 February 20
Page 39 and 40:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “This
Page 41 and 42:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “Wins
Page 43 and 44:
THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “If t
Page 45 and 46:
Policing A Journal of Policy and Pr
Page 47 and 48: THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “Poli
Page 49 and 50: THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “Curr
Page 51 and 52: SPONSORED FEATURE The Police Superi
Page 53 and 54: THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “The
Page 55 and 56: THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME “Inde
Page 57 and 58: THE ROLE OF POLICE divisions in soc
Page 59 and 60: THE ROLE OF POLICE the form of the
Page 61 and 62: THE ROLE OF POLICE “Proactive pol
Page 63 and 64: THE ROLE OF POLICE “It will be im
Page 65 and 66: THE ROLE OF POLICE “The strategic
Page 67 and 68: THE ROLE OF POLICE “In recent yea
Page 69 and 70: THE ROLE OF POLICE “Society under
Page 71 and 72: SPONSORED FEATURE The police solut
Page 73 and 74: THE ROLE OF POLICE “There are sig
Page 75 and 76: THE ROLE OF POLICE “The police, t
Page 77 and 78: THE ROLE OF POLICE Following the ev
Page 79 and 80: THE ROLE OF POLICE “The spending
Page 81 and 82: THE ROLE OF POLICE “Crackdowns ca
Page 83 and 84: THE ROLE OF POLICE “People are un
Page 85 and 86: POLICING CHALLENGES “The main iss
Page 87 and 88: Face recognition technology for cri
Page 89 and 90: POLICING CHALLENGES “The UK and o
Page 91 and 92: POLICING CHALLENGES “The National
Page 93 and 94: POLICING CHALLENGES “It was vital
Page 95 and 96: POLICING CHALLENGES “Sites hostin
Page 97: POLICING CHALLENGES “In a climate
Page 101 and 102: A FORCE FIT FOR THE FUTURE differen
Page 103 and 104: A FORCE FIT FOR THE FUTURE “This
Page 105 and 106: A FORCE FIT FOR THE FUTURE “It se
Page 107 and 108: Policing in the UK is facing uncert
show all

Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?