Global progressive policing

Tackling Serious and Organised Crime: Assessing What a Comprehensive Strategy for Tackling Organised Crime Should Look Like Under a New Labour Government
(Ended 5th Dec 2024)

Online

5th Dec 2024 to 5th Dec 2024

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Date of Event: Thursday, December 5th 2024
Time of Event: 9:30 AM — 1:00 PM GMT
Place of Event: Webinar

Key Speaker
Professor John Coxhead, Professor of Policing at the Institute of Policing, Staffordshire University

The National Crime Agency estimate that there are at least 59,000 people in the UK involved in serious and organised crime (SOC), an increase from 36,600 in 2013; and that SOC costs the UK at least £47 billion each year, up from £24 billion in 2013. These figures are viewed by many as an underestimate, with the potential scale of money laundering impacting the UK alone being estimated at over £100 billion annually.

The Labour party have committed to creating a new Border Security Command, with hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers, and cross-border police officers, in order to tackle the criminal gangs who are smuggling asylum seekers across the English Channel in small boats. The party have also said that they will ensure the service is organised so as to enable investment in specialist capabilities to more effectively tackle cross-border issues such as serious organised crime. Labour have also said that they will introduce a new offence of criminal exploitation of children, as a means of tackling gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime. The government have also promising to “take down rural crime gangs” as part of a new rural crime strategy. In December 2023, the previous Conservative government announced a new strategy aimed at tackling the growing threat of serious and organised crime, including via further action to eradicate complex criminal networks through the NCA, empowering local forces to tackle these illicit crimes in their communities, and working overseas to prevent exploitation, such as modern slavery and human trafficking.

Failings identified by experts in the UK’s approach to tackling organised crime include: a failure to make serious inroads in tackling money-laundering; a lack of government outreach engagement with researchers, analysts, and experts; and a lack of updated research priorities, with the UK government having not published updated research priorities since April 2018–March 2021. RUSI highlight that “there is little evidence of such a partnership-based approach to the refresh of the government’s strategy” and describe UK approach hitherto as one of “uncertain future strategic direction”. Jürgen Stock, Secretary General of Interpol, meanwhile, has highlighted “the explosive growth of transnational organized crime” around the world. Stock argue that “[t]his epidemic can only be tackled by urgent, coordinated global action, greater cooperation between countries and regions and by investing in shared technology.”

Programme

  • Examine existing trends in and drivers of organised crime in the UK
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the UK government’s current strategies and the tools and powers that law enforcement officers have available to tackle organised crime
  • Learn about and assess the new Labour government’s plans for crime and policing might mean for tackling organised crime
  •  Exchange views on how to make serious progress in tackling cross-Channel people smuggler gangs
  • Analyse the respective roles of local police forces, the NCA and other agencies in tackling organised crime  
  • Understand what a multi-agency, multi-stakeholder, partnership-based approach to tackling organised crime should look like
  • Develop strategies for improving collaborating with other countries and with the EU, and for strengthening international collaboration through structures such as Interpol

Who Should Attend?

  • Regional Organised Crime Units
  • Serious and Organised Crime Local Partnerships
  • Police Service
  • Police and Crime Commissioners
  • Serious and Organised Crime Officers and Advisers
  • Community Safety Partnerships
  • Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships
  • Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs
  • Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences
  • Offender Management Services
  • Fraud Prevention Teams
  • Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Teams
  • E-crime Teams
  • Local Criminal Justice Boards
  • Prison and Probation Services
  • Crown Prosecution Service
  • Criminal Justice Practitioners
  • Victim Support Services
  • Victim Care/Advocacy Organisations
  • Neighbourhood Policing Teams
  • Youth Offending Teams
  • Youth Justice Boards
  • Health and Wellbeing Board
  • Local Safeguarding Boards
  • Immigration Enforcement Teams
  • Human Trafficking Teams
  • Troubled Families Teams
  • Local Safeguarding Children Boards
  • Community Cohesion Officers
  • Community Engagement Officers
  • Third Sector Practitioners
  • Academics, Analysts and Researchers
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