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European Serious Organised Crime Conference "Common Understanding, Common Threat, Common Response"

Description

This innovative international conference on serious organised crime aimed to build links and capacity throughout Europe, disseminate and discuss the development of police forces and techniques

Summary

The rise of organised crime networks in Europe has resulted in problems with money laundering, guns, human trafficking and counterfeiting. By helping to develop police forces and other crime-fighting agencies across the continent, these networks can be broken up which should see real results in terms of crime reduction on the streets of the UK's cities, as well as throughout the urban continent.

Some cities experience greater degrees of problems with organised crime than others. Liverpool has been designated the European Capital of culture 2008 and is working on a series of projects including "Cities on the Edge". This is a project that links seven similar cities with the aim of fostering dialogue, sharing, collaboration and reciprocal knowledge. Merseyside Police are making a huge effort to tackle organised crime in Liverpool and to do this it is necessary to engage the rest of Europe's crime-fighting capability.

By bringing together leading experts from across Europe as well as the UK, the conference provided a key opportunity for delegates at all levels of knowledge of approaches to tackling serious and organised crime to learn how to apply and implement new procedures and cultures to achieve real change in attitudes and behaviour.

Purpose of the Conference

This three day conference did:

  • Hear the latest Government policy on tackling serious organised crime in the UK and throughout Europe
  • Promote the efforts of the European Commission and associated organisations in co-ordinating efforts
  • Update delegates on the strategies of the major organisations involved in the fight against serious and organised crime in Europe
  • Focus on areas where specific organised crime is rife, and evaluate the methods used to tackle it
  • Help to develop police capability across Europe
  • Update the EU Organised Crime Threat Assessment, e-Borders and current policy on border control
  • Encourage and facilitate partnership working between police forces, border control services, immigration and other key stakeholders
  • Highlight the benefits of information sharing across borders, and look at the potential impact of the Prüm Treaty
  • Provide in-depth analysis of techniques to break up organised gang crimes in the main problems areas
  • Look at crime-specific methods and partnership working – gun crime, counterfeiting, human trafficking and money laundering
  • Set out ways to smooth the legislative challenge for successful prosecutions
  • Promote Cities on the Edge and look at both the problems facing these cities, and the cultural richness they display
  • Provide several series of in-depth seminars looking at niche areas of serious organised crime in Europe
  • Offer an unrivaled opportunity to network with European colleagues working to combat serious organised crime