Proactive approach to targeting transnational organized crime focus of OSCE regional workshop in Kyiv

An OSCE regional training workshop dedicated to proactive and intelligence-led approaches to targeting transnational organized crime groups took place on 12 and 13 December 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Some 60 senior law enforcement professionals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, and Ukraine attended the workshop organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department/Strategic Police Matters Unit, in co-operation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and the Internal Affairs Ministry of Ukraine.

The workshop included case studies showing proactive approaches to combating organized crime by experienced practitioners from the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, State Police of Italy, National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine as well as briefings by experts from INTERPOL, EUROPOL and the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine.

Participants discussed latest trends and developments as well as challenges, good practices and lessons learned in the fight against organized crime in Baltic, Eastern European and South Caucasus regions.

“Ensuring a safe environment for our citizens is a top priority of the Ukrainian Government. A proactive approach to policing aimed at disrupting and preventing criminal activities plays an indispensable role in these efforts,” said Tetiana Kovalchuk, Deputy Internal Affairs Minister of Ukraine.

“Growing complexity, sophistication and the transnational nature of organized crime groups calls for innovative ways of combating this threat. Intelligence-led policing has proved to be an effective method in dismantling these actors,” said Arnar Jensson, the OSCE Intelligence-Led Policing Project Manager.

The event was a part of a series of national and regional training workshops organized by the Strategic Police Matters Unit under its extra-budgetary project on Intelligence-led Policing (ILP). The OSCE Guidebook on Intelligence-Led Policing presents a common and coherent approach to implementing ILP in the OSCE area.