Europol

=**Europol**=

The European Police Office, or Europol, is the European Union law enforcement organization that handles criminal intelligence. Its objective is to build a safer Europe by improving the effectiveness and co–operation between the competent authorities of the Member States in preventing and combating all forms of serious international organized crime and terrorism. This cooperative policing is directed toward large-scale criminal activities that have an organized crime structure and that typically consist of operations in multiple countries. It operates under a command for preventing and combating criminal activities such as money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism, illicit vehicle trafficking, fraud, the trafficking of human beings, and illegal immigration networks amongst others. Those crimes are exactly the kind of crimes that require a multinational cooperative response team because these criminals do not confine themselves and their activities to a single country. Those borders stretch out all over the globe.



History
The idea was established in 1992 with the Maastricht Treaty of the European Union (EU), but it did not gain full operation until 1999 after it’s ratification by the member nations and the passage of some needed legal studies. It was born of the idea of establishing a form of cooperation between European police forces to tackle widespread transnational crimes. The first step was the formation of the Europol Drugs Unit (EDU) in 1994. The EDU had no powers of arrest across borders, but it was mandated to assist the national police forces in the investigations. Few years later its mandate expanded to include other areas of transnational crime such as terrorism organized crime, vehicle theft, and more. In 1993 it was decided by the European council that the location of Europol should be established in The Hague, Netherlands. The Hague was the perfect location because the city has had a long tradition of involvement in international law and it was also home of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The convention established Europol under Article K3 of the Maastricht Treaty in 1995, but did not go into force until October of 1998.



Staff & Officers
The agency is formed of more than 900 staff. The staff is made up of regular police officers and about 185 Europol liaison officers (ELO’s) that are based at the Europol headquarters in Hague. Since analysis is at the core of it’s activities, it employs more than 100 of the best trained European analysts. The current director of Europol is Rob Wainwright of the UK. The law enforcement agency works closely with law enforcement agencies in 28 EU member states and other non-EU partner states such as Australia, Canada, Norway, and the U.S among some. Among other connections they also cooperate with third countries such as Albania, Bosnia, Colombia, Iceland, Switzerland, and the Republic of Macedonia. Each year law enforcement authorities rely on the Europol’s intelligence work and the expertise of the diverse staff to carry out over 18,000 cross-border investigations each year. This has all lead to interruption of numerous criminal networks, to the recovery of millions of euros, to the recovery of victims including exploited women and children, and more.



Responsibilities and Services
Today Europol is one of the wide-range of international law and justice organizations in the legal capital of the world, Hague. The center of course is protected by high security and it runs 24/7: 24 days, 7 days a week. The organization handles criminal intelligence and combats serious international organized crime by cooperating between authorities and members of states. Although the agency has no executive powers and the officials are not allowed to make arrests or conduct investigations in the member states, they do provide support with information exchange, intelligence analysis, expertise and training, and they can contribute to the executive measures carried out by the national authorities.

There are 3 different types of co-operations that they can do which consist of training and technical co-operation, strategic co-operation, and exchange of personal data. The operations that they have conducted range from dismantling large international skimming networks involving 9 European Union Member States, Operation Greensea (assisting to dismantle a human trafficking network), dismantling of credit card fraud networks, dismantling of organized criminal network which was operating in 6 countries, and many more.