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Transferability of police cooperation strategies: The case of European Union

Transferability of police cooperation strategies: The case of European Union Joint Investigation Teams. Ludo Block Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. OUTLINE. Introduction; Cross-border criminal investigations in the EU; Origin and emergence of the JIT concept;

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Transferability of police cooperation strategies: The case of European Union

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  1. Transferability of police cooperation strategies: The case of European Union Joint Investigation Teams Ludo Block Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  2. OUTLINE • Introduction; • Cross-border criminal investigations in the EU; • Origin and emergence of the JIT concept; • Practical experience with JIT’s up to date; • Conclusion.

  3. INTRODUCTION • Do EU Council legal instruments aimed at enhancing police cooperation have an impact practices of police cooperation and if so, why? • Research sample consists of 70 instruments; • Analysis of EU Council policy-making related to the instruments; • Assessment of the impact of these instruments on police cooperation practices; • Selected case studies for in-depth analysis.

  4. INTRODUCTION • Joint Investigation Teams (JIT) are a new strategy for cross-border cooperation in criminal investigations; • Traditional MLA was considered as ‘insufficient and outdated’ and there were high expectations of JIT’s; • Introduced in the MLA Convention and subsequently in a Framework Decision on JIT’s; • Legal basis for JIT’s since 2004 available; • Despite the political ambition a negligible number of JIT’s has been established so far; • What causes this gap?

  5. CROSS-BORDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE EU The context of cross-border criminal investigations in the EU is complex as result of: • varying rules of evidence; • different approaches to covert investigative techniques; • diverging disclosure regimes; • fragmentation of law enforcement efforts; • law enforcement agencies that have to prioritise capacity and are governed by performance targets; • different languages and diverging (police) cultures.

  6. CROSS-BORDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE EU • Over the years (more or less) workable solutions to address the obstacles have been established; • The ‘traditional’ strategy in cross-border investigations of serious and organised crime: parallel investigations; • The JIT concept introduces innovative features: - multidisciplinary; - information and evidence can be shared directly; - seconded members can be entrusted to assist in or undertake investigative measures themselves; - request from a JIT to participating states should be considered as national requests.

  7. EMERGENCE OF THE JIT CONCEPT IN EU POLICY-MAKING • 1994 Concept ‘joint investigation team’ introduced in the drafting of a new customs convention; • 1995 Concept ‘joint investigation team’ introduced in the drafting of the MLA Convention; • 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam, Action plan on Organised Crime; • 1998 Vienna Action Plan; • 1999 Tampere European Council Conclusions; First tangible text on JIT’s in draft MLA Convention; • 2000 MLA Convention agreed; • 2001 9/11 prompts a strong call for joint investigation teams; • 2002 Framework Decision on JIT’s adopted; • 2004 First JIT between France and Spain; • 2009 28 JIT’s established, continuing efforts to promote JIT’s.

  8. EMERGENCE OF the JIT CONCEPT IN EU POLICY-MAKING Analysis of the policy-making reveals that: • The note that introduced the idea for JIT’s does not explain the concept, background or practicalities of joint teams; • Subsequent discussions contain no residue of any consideration on the practicalities of JIT’s from a professional perspective; • All first notes and tangible drafts of JIT provisions submitted by Germany.

  9. ORIGIN OF JIT CONCEPT German domestic practices with joint teams: • In 1970 first ‘Gemeinsame Ermittlungsgruppe’ established in Hamburg between police and customs; • Concept of joint teams aims at inter-institutional cooperation where overlapping competencies exist; • In 1990 joint teams were included in national policy for combating drug trafficking; • Nowadays ‘Gemeinsame Ermittlungsgruppen’ are established for combating various forms of serous and organised crime.

  10. PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH JIT’S • Member States have diverging approaches towards JIT’s; • More than one-third of JIT’s established between France and Spain, their pragmatic approach mirrors parallel investigations; • All established JIT’s are bilateral while the added value was foreseen particularly for multilateral investigations; • Obstacles to JIT’s similar as those to parallel investigations.

  11. ADRESSING THE OBSTACLES?

  12. CONCLUSION • The JIT concept can work, however: - under favourable circumstances; - as yet it has not shown an obvious added value over parallel investigations; • ‘Good’ policy-making on police cooperation needs to take the professional rationality into account; legal and political considerations alone are insufficient.

  13. END

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