Strategies for future policing focus of OSCE Annual Police Experts Meeting

The likely challenges that the law enforcement agencies will face in the years to come and strategies for future policing were the focus of the OSCE’s 2018 Annual Police Experts Meeting, held in Vienna on 22 and 23 October 2018.

The meeting brought together 130 law enforcement experts from OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation as well as representatives of international and regional organizations and academia. They discussed recent developments and trends, and prospects for the future. International experts presented innovative approaches to addressing the new and changing operational environment. There was also a particular focus on ways to enhance efforts to seize, confiscate, manage and re-use criminal assets. 

“The challenges that today’s law enforcement is facing have become more demanding, complex and multi-dimensional,” said Ambassador Luca Fratini, Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the OSCE, in his opening remarks. “The criminal world is truly transnational in nature and making full use of globalization and new technologies. So must our policies, strategies and operations.”

Participants noted that while already existing transnational crimes – like trafficking in illicit drugs and human beings, the smuggling of weapons and terrorism – are expected to become even more difficult to combat, cybercrimes including ransomware, online fraud, hacking and data theft will  become central issues for law enforcement agencies to deal with. The expansion of online payment methods, cryptocurrencies and anonymous websites further contribute to the changing nature of crime.

Guy Vinet, Head of the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, said: “Traditional policing methods alone cannot effectively contain these new types of crime and we have to look to new methods. This does not mean that traditional policing has failed. No, it means that there is a need to expand it and to supplement it with new strategies, including by making use of modern means such as the social media, analysis software and crime predictive techniques.”