Social dynamite for police cooperation?

EuroCOP conference in Riga puts the spotlight on police working conditions in the EU.

The second event in the EuroCOP Enlargement Conference series aiming to address the development of police cooperation within an enlarged European Union took place in the Latvian capital of Riga on 28 February 2005.

In organising this large conference specifically in Latvia, EuroCOP Member Organisations showed their support for their colleagues in Latvia, the only EU Member State where up to now police officers do not have the right to professional representation.

While outside the winter snow and ice still embraced the city, a breath of spring air for Latvian police officers was brought into the conference by Ēriks JĒKABSONS, their Minister of Interior who in his address recognised the importance and supported the formation of a police union in Latvia.

The focus of the first part of the conference was the constructive role that unions could play, particularly in the planning of reform and transition processes within the police. 

Einar HENRIKSEN PM Gulbrandsdal, Norway

Einar HENRIKSEN, Norwegian District Police Chief, clearly outlined the fundamental preconditions for a constructive dialogue: wide reaching inclusion of the police union and staff representatives in the decision-making process with both sides taking mutual responsibility for the success of this process. 

He emphasised that negotiations must take place on an equal hierarchical footing to ensure a level playing field and with the power being shared between the parties.  HENRIKSEN left no doubt that national legislation specifically setting the realms for negotiations with staff and union representatives was a precondition to achieve this end.

Achieving this desired end is, however, far from a matter of course as seen in the presentation of Kalle LIIVAMÄGI, Chairman of the Estonian Trade Union of State and Self-government Institution Workers.

Estonian police officers were only authorised to found a union in 2000 as opposed to their Norwegian colleagues who formed their police union in 1905. Hence social dialogue in Estonia is still in the process of development, and often restricted to consultation rather than co-determination. 

The police union is consulted on issues such as the determination of employment contracts, wage conditions, working time and service training and health and safety.  

LIIVAMÄGI pointed out significant results have been achieved by the Estonian police union including fixing of the realms of social security and a minimum wage for police officers.

While there is most certainly still a long road ahead, the police union is established and actively working to enhance its standing towards the government and among colleagues in the police.

Following on from this presentation was the Panel Discussion which widened the spectrum of topics covered.  Discussions between German Police Union (Gewerkschaft der Polizei) Chairman Konrad FREIBERG, Einar HENRIKSEN and Kalle LIIVAMÄGI were moderated by Clint ELLIOTT, EuroCOP Executive Committee member and General Secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales.

L to R: Kalle LIIVAMÄGI ; Clint ELLIOTT, EuroCOP Executive Committee member and General Secretary of Police Federation of England and Wales; Einar HENRIKSEN ; Konrad FREIBERG, President of Gewerkschaft der Polizei, GdP, Germany

Topics covered included some of the consequences that the diverging social standards of police officers around the Baltic Sea have on police cooperation. The discussion showed that reasonable social and economic security as well as further education and career opportunities are the main influences on the decision whether or not to become a police officer.  

The bottom line drawn was that good social and economic conditions and good opportunities encourage candidates of a high calibre to apply.  All police services need to concentrate on its ability to attract highly skilled and motivated people in order to face the increasing challenges of policing today.

The discussions showed unity in the claim that security has its price, as Heinz KIEFER, President of the European Confederation of Police summarised, “In a democratic society more importance needs to be attached to the social and economic security of those who are responsible for citizens’ security.” 

According to KIEFER, “Security is not everything, but without security nothing else has any value.”  

KIEFER’s message was clear: to achieve a high quality police service, the right conditions are needed to attract and retain the necessary quality people.

Delegates agreed that without the appropriate incentives, the quality of police work would suffer – particularly as police officers are faced with increasing demands especially due to intensified cross-border cooperation.

However, this intensified cross-border cooperation creates organisational challenges too.  A key administration to coordinate this cooperation for the EU is the European Police Office (Europol) based in The Hague, Holland. Europol is burdened with a number of misconceptions about its role which Rainer WENNING, Europol spokesman, aimed to correct.

Rainer WENNING Europol Spokesman

He emphasised that Europol was an investigative support agency rather than some sort of European FBI equivalent.  With a unique multi-agency approach and multi-language set-up Europol is pivotal for effective police cooperation. 

The team of Liaison Officers from Member States as well as further police officers seconded from Member States, are party to an average of over 10.000 exchanges of information and work on over 3000 international investigations a year. 

Their unique position means that connections and commonalities between criminal cases in different countries can be detected which is not the case when working purely at a national level. To illustrate this WENNING gave the example of a case that started with the discovery of one stolen truck by Danish police.

With Europol support investigations resulted in the cracking down of an extensive stolen vehicle, drug trafficking and prostitution criminal network stretching way beyond the Danish border.  Links were made to over 600 criminals and 29 companies in the UK, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. This illustration clearly shows the highly significant added value of Europol’s centralised information network.

While involving Europol at all was a key to success in this investigation, the efficient coordination of cross-border cooperation on the national level was an equally important ingredient. This was stressed by Jytte EKDAHL, head of the Danish Monitoring Unit at the Serious Organised Crime Agency, who presented the Danish framework for police cooperation.

Europol is the main channel for intelligence exchange in all Danish investigations within the EU and liaison officers based in third countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Albania the main channel around the EU.  Regional cooperation includes the Baltic Sea Task Force, set up in July 2001 incorporating officers from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Russia and Germany. 

As its operational basis the task force has a framework agreement of swift information exchange, effective use of entry and exit rules as well as effective investigative and judicial cooperation. 

Ms EKDAHL singled out an example of its success with an investigation of the dissemination of counterfeit currency by Lithuanian gangs initiated by the Baltic Sea Task Force.

Investigations led to the cracking down of an extensive criminal operation that stretched across the whole of Europe. In summary it became clear that the strength of the Danish approach to coordinating cross-border cooperation is that all exchanges are managed through one single department.

How necessary this cooperation is in the fight against criminal networks became evident with the alarming picture painted by freelance journalist, Bernd-GeorgTHAMM. He outlined the vast resources and connections of criminal and terrorist organisations from the Mafia to al-Qaida that permit them to operate across geographical, political and legal borders. He put forward an impressively detailed account of how incidents spread the world over are inter-connected and eventually culminate in the Madrid attacks.  

THAMM presented what in his view was conclusive evidence that the 11 March attacks in Spain signified that the ‘domino effect’ strategy outlined in an al-Qaida handbook entitled “Iraqi Jihad – hopes and risks” was being implemented. The strategy entails attacking alliance members on national soil to force them, one-by-one, to withdraw their troops from Iraq. The paper perceived Spain as the weakest alliance member and so to be targeted as the first domino tile to fall. In summary, THAMM offered the delegates an interpretation of just how resourceful terrorist groups have become and how devastating the results can be when these resources are put to use. 

By the end of the conference it was clear to all participants the challenges involved in efficiently coordinating cross border cooperation are as much about vehicle theft and trafficking, as they are about safeguarding modern democracy against the threat of organised crime and terrorism. Notably participants agreed that achieving adequate social and economic conditions for police officers was an absolute precondition to facing the ever-increasing challenges involved in ensuring public safety and security.

Conference programme