NCA signposts launch of Joint International Crime Centre

Formed by combining the current capabilities housed within the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) International Crime Bureau and policing’s International Crime Co-ordination Centre, the Joint International Crime Centre will drive, co-ordinate and support the response of UK policing and law enforcement to international crime.

The two previous centres have worked with the NCA, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Home Office support to create the Joint International Crime Centre, which is being hosted by the NCA.

The Joint International Crime Centre is integrated with the NCA’s specialist international capabilities, such as its international liaison officer network in which scores of officers based overseas cover cases in upwards of 120 countries. Circa 300 officers will be working at the Joint International Crime Centre, with around one-third of them seconded from police forces.

Governance for the operation is jointly overseen by the NCA and the NPCC.

Streamlined unit

Steve Rodhouse, director general of operations at the NCA, explained: “While the Joint International Crime Centre retains the best of both previous centres, it’s a new streamlined unit bringing together shared processes, teams, systems and data under one roof. It will improve how policing and the NCA tackles international criminality that impacts the UK.”

Rodhouse added: “I’m completely confident that the Joint International Crime Centre will make us more effective in protecting members of the public.”

The Joint International Crime Centre provides a multi-agency approach to meeting the increasing international demands of territorial policing.

Deputy chief constable Pete Ayling, the NPCC’s international lead, explained: “Like all nations, the UK faces a growing threat from organised criminal groups that operate across borders with increasing levels of sophistication. The Joint International Crime Centre brings together experts from across policing and the National Crime Agency to tackle international criminals and bear down on serious organised crime and dangerous offenders.”

Further, Ayling noted: “The Joint International Crime Centre will identify criminal threats emanating from abroad and build capability to tackle and prevent them. The UK is a safe place in which to live, work and prosper and this new specialist unit will ensure that we remain at the cutting edge of international law enforcement, creating a hostile place for those who would seek to cause harm on our shores.”

Upstream, online, at source

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat stated: “Organised crime groups don’t recognise borders. If we want to crack down on the most dangerous organisations and offenders then we need to tackle them upstream, online and at source. The new Joint International Crime Centre will do just that, adopting a multi-agency approach to identify criminal threats emanating from abroad and blunt their reach into the UK.”

A non-exhaustive list of services for the new operation includes offender management, extradition and watch-listing, policy and guidance, partner support, data management and analysis, information provision and exchange, Interpol and Europol engagement, Prum (DNA and fingerprints) and biometrics data exchange, disclosure and, last but not least, outbound and inbound intelligence development and analysis.

Further, the Joint International Crime Centre will also provide operational support for surveillance requests, judicial co-operation, search and locate (ie ‘missing persons’) work, overseas security and justice, casework, training, international liaison officer network support and work involving the International Law Enforcement Alerts Platform.