Memorandum by the Lancashire Constabulary
Lancashire Constabulary, in line with all UK
Police forces, has over recent years experienced a significant
increase in the requirement to conduct investigations and enquiries
overseas. Such enquiries are normally routed through Interpol,
on a police to police basis or, by means of an International Letter
of Request, through the Judicial Co-operation Unit at the Home
Office. The latter mainly being used where evidence is requested
from another country.
Each UK Police Force has an International Liaison
Officer (ILO) through which International enquiries are processed.
In 2002 the ILO in Lancashire dealt with 106 cases increasing
to 279 cases during 2007.
The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
act as the UK's national central bureau for both Interpol and
Europal. When an enquiry is received by SOCA from a UK police
force SOCA will direct it to either Interpol or Europol accordingly.
Europol principally deal with criminal intelligence,
working on intelligence collection and analysis concerning criminal
threats which transcend a number of member states. In particular
Europol have recently been involved in activity to counter human
trafficking within Europe. They produce intelligence assessments
and briefings which are used by UK police to inform strategic
and tactical decision making. Europol is based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Europol supports the law enforcement activities
of the Member States mainly against:
— illicit drug trafficking;
— illicit immigration networks;
— forgery of money (counterfeiting
of the Euro) and other means of payment;
— trafficking in human beings (including
child pornography);
— illicit vehicle trafficking; and
In addition, other main priorities for Europol
include crimes against persons, financial crime and cybercrime.
This applies where an organised criminal structure is involved
and two or more Member States are affected.
Europol, through seconded liaison magistrates,
Eurojust, work closely with European Justice Ministries to facilitate
the completion of International Letters of Request. This function
has been used in connection with Lancashire enquiries on a number
of occasions and has been of considerable assistance in what were
otherwise difficult cases.
In a recent initiative Europol has worked with
member states to improve the processing of financial enquiries
between member states. The Europol Asset Tracing request form
now is frequently used (1-2 per month) by Lancashire officers.
Although most enquiries are directed to Europol
through SOCA, Lancashire's ILO has dealt directly with Europol
staff in connection with human trafficking enquiries and on each
occasion has found the staff to be accommodating and helpful providing
speedy resolutions to problems and facilitating co-operation with
overseas law enforcement agencies.
Europol has in the region of 600 staff, 18%
of which are seconded officers, the organisation is funded by
contributions from member states according to their GNP, although
there are proposals for it to be funded directly from the EU budget.
Budget 2008: EUR 66.4 million.
The view of our liaison officer is that the
activities of Europol have little effect on the policing of Lancashire.
Whilst we have consulted them on a number of occasions their responses
have not in the main assisted us all that much. The exception
to this is the liaison magistrate function which can be useful
where obtaining timely assistance from other countries is proving
difficult. However, 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.
The intelligence products that are published
by Europol are generally of a strategic nature and whilst they
are of limited relevance to policing at a local level, they assist
in informing understanding of the international nature of organised
crime.
September 2008
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