THE LINK WITH SOCA
256. Communication between SOCA and Europol is
very effective, but we wondered whether the same could be said
of communication between SOCA and police forces in the United
Kingdom which feed intelligence and information to it and hope
to receive feedback from it. We agree with Mr Storr that
the burden is on SOCA to make this a two-way relationship which
works. (Q 54) Yet the President of ACPO, Chief Constable
Ken Jones, thought there were "real difficulties" in
the relationship between SOCA and the 52 police forces; there
was a feeling that communication tended to be a bit one-way at
times. (QQ 406, 382)
257. We did not take formal evidence from any
of the police forces, but from informal contacts with some of
them it is plain that these difficulties are only too real. The
Chief Constable of Suffolk told us that his force had this year
had about 80 foreign cases covering drugs, people trafficking,
paedophiles, international fraud and scams, national security
and terrorism issues, involving countries in Europe, Asia, Africa,
USA and Latin America; but when his force needed action or information
in relation to any other country, whether in the EU or outside
it, they always used Interpol. He found Interpol useful and his
force had, through Interpol, built up contacts with various police
authorities in many countries. In his view the way in which SOCA
fed information to his force left much to be desired. Information
from the Yorkshire and Gloucestershire Constabularies was to the
same effect.
258. Lancashire Constabulary gave us a note which
we print with the written evidence (p 207). It shows that
there has been some direct contact between Lancashire's ILO and
Europol officials in connection with human trafficking enquiries
but that, as we would expect, most contact is through SOCA. But
the main conclusion is that "the activities of Europol have
little effect on the policing of Lancashire".
259. Chief Constable Jones also thought that
Europol had poor visibility amongst law enforcement agencies;
in his view Eurojust had a much higher profile, and made more
effort to communicate with criminal justice professionals across
the EU. (QQ 378, 402) It also appears that the dissemination
of Europol documents is patchy. In answer to a question about
gaps in the current information exchange mechanisms within the
EU justice and law enforcement communities, Sir Ronnie Flanagan
said "I just wonder how many chief constables would be familiar
with the document Ken has. [Chief Constable Ken Jones was holding
a copy of the Europol TE-SAT report]. We could not say with 100%
certainty that 100% of chief constables would be familiar with
that assessment document."(Q 397)
260. This is a regrettable state of affairs.
It is likely that the true position is not so much that Europol
has little effect on local policing; it is rather that, as the
Lancashire Constabulary told us, "it may be that SOCA utilise
Europol on our behalf to deal with some of our Interpol enquiries
and we are therefore unaware of the Europol contribution".
It is essential that, when local police forces seek the help
of SOCA over crimes with an international element, they should
be told whether SOCA intend to seek help from Europol, Interpol
or some other agency, and be kept fully informed of the outcome
of their query and the source of any information from international
agencies. If information from Europol reaches them re-branded
as SOCA information, this will hinder their evaluation of it.
261. Similarly, if SOCA requests information
for Europol from police forces, they should be told that this
is the purpose of the request.
RAISING AWARENESS
262. Paragraph 3.2 of Europol's written evidence
sets out Europol's role in training. (p 85) This includes
training of senior police officers at the European Police College
following the cooperation agreement with CEPOL, and involvement
in national training courses. Nevertheless Mr Ratzel confirmed
what is plain to us from other evidence, that there is only limited
awareness of Europol and its role among the police forces of the
EU. He felt that young police officers should nowadays learn about
Europol from the very beginning of their training. (Q 175)
263. While Europol does itself have a part to
play in raising its profile among United Kingdom forces, we believe
that the main responsibility lies elsewhere, and specifically
with SOCA. Other large Member States organise visits to Europol
for ILOs from local forces; we believe that United Kingdom forces
should do this too, and that it should be the responsibility
of SOCA to arrange such visits and to encourage senior officers
to have a better understanding of Europol's work.
89 Protocol of 19 June 1997 on the privileges and immunities
of Europol, the members of its organs, the deputy directors and
employees of Europol (OJ C 221 of 19.7.1997, p. 2). Back
90
Letter of 9 July 2008 from the Chairman of the Select Committee
to the Rt Hon Tony McNulty MP, Minister of State, p 207. Back
91
This appears from the Conclusions of the JHA Council in October
2005, where "intelligence-led policing" becomes in French
"activités de police fondées sur le renseignement",
and in German "erkenntnisgestützten Strafverfolgung". Back
92
Paragraphs 66-76. Back
93
These are not to be confused with the liaison officers seconded
to Europol. Back
