Events

The FI TIG established a new subgroup dedicated to the topic of cryptocurrencies.

The first cryptocurrency meeting will be held on the 27th of January 2022 at 13:00. This will be a brainstorming session for the TIG to determine together their expectations and how to proceed. 

If you are interested in the topic and you would like to actively participate in a working group about cryptocurrencies, please indicate your interest by sending an email here.  

The first FI TIG meeting in 2022 will take place on 17 March at 14:00 CET on the topic of OSINT. 

Between 25th and 27th January 2022, the ENLETS Public Order group made up of 11 practitioners across Europe will meet in person for the first time in Poland.

The objective of this meeting is to bring together Members of the TIG – Law Enforcement Practitioners who presently work in the public order end-user environment in order to:  

• Present and enrich the picture of the state of play on Public Order System in their countries;  
• Highlight and discuss gaps and needs;  
• Translate and define the priorities into real solutions;  
• Create a space to talk about Members’ experiences, issues and problems relating to public order within their own LEA;  
• Identify where commonalities and synergies lay with colleagues from other LEAs; 
• Think and act as a community. 

The data from the previously submitted questionnaires and F2F meeting in Poznan will be used to:  

• Finalise the work related to the ‘Report on the state of play on Public Order System in Europe including gaps and needs in the field’, which is the part of the Project Initiation Document of the ENLETS Public Order TIG.  
• Plan and develop activities in 2022 based on gaps and needs and practitioners’ priorities.  

The meeting will be accompanied by a visit to the Riot Police Unit of the Polish Police Regional Headquarters in Poznan in order to present the equipment, vehicles and tactics used by the Team.

The TIG had planned a face-to-face meeting in Brussels, Belgium, but due to the COVID pandemic, the group chair decided to move this to an online session.

The transition to a virtual event had both advantages and disadvantages. Of course, members of the TIG were keen to break the pause between physical sessions caused by the COVID virus. A group meeting would have provided a fantastic opportunity to reflect on current priorities and plan for the months ahead. Nevertheless, moving the session into the digital world will allow more attendees to join. Also, all sessions can run separately rather than overlapping the ‘strategic’ and ‘technical’ paths as previously planned.   

The biggest downside of the cancelled physical event is the training that OSINT expert, Marco Corradin, will run. The course prepared by Marco is exciting but challenging, and having delegates present in the same room would have assisted the smooth running of the training, creating a supportive atmosphere. Nevertheless, the team is reviewing options to replicate the live environment and will provide all course participants with a space to engage Marco throughout the course.    

If you would like to participate in the online event, please register your interest here.     

On 30 November 2021, DG HOME organised a full-day 'Semi-Annual Counter-UAS' workshop online with relevant stakeholders. Jarmo Puustinen, the C-UAS TIG Leader, actively participated in the workshop and presented the activities of the ENLETS and C-UAS TIG.

The workshop was organised in a virtual format, as a part of the ongoing implementation of the 2017 EU Action Plan for Protection of Public Spaces and the 2020 Counter-Terrorism Agenda for the EU. The purpose of the workshop was to take stock of recent, ongoing and anticipated activities by the EU, including within the context of the European Program for counter-UAS systems testing, and actions by the Member States, international organisations and third countries. The event was also an occasion to identify areas where further EU action to support Member State efforts in this field is needed.

The C-UAS TIG is also currently collecting responses for the Regulation, Detection, U-Space & Neutralization Subgroups surveys on the legal situation, used technology to detect drones, as well as the U-SPACE concept concerning counter UAS employed by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) in the EU. The aim is to analyse the state of play regarding counter-drone matters in MS to get a complete picture of the situation.

The next C-UAS TIG meeting is scheduled for the 5th of January 2022 from 12:00-14:00 CET with a presentation about the UK's experience in C-UAS.

The first F2F meeting of the Public Order TIG scheduled for the beginning of December in Poland has been postponed to 25^th-26^th January 2022 due to the migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border.

At the moment, the TIG's main focus is to collect information on the State of Play on the Public Order System in Europe. So far, the questionnaires have been completed by most of the countries participating in the TIG work. Additional contribution from the Czech Republic has also been received, which is not officially a member of the group yet. Other countries that have not joined the group are invited to take part in this first Public Order TIG activity. The questionnaire can be found under this link.

The aim of the survey is to conduct an in-depth and comprehensive study of the Public Order System in Europe and to identify, systematise and describe the state of play in this area. The result of the study will be both in the form of a report presenting the situation of public order in individual countries represented in the Public Order Group as well as a practical database in which it will be possible to easily access the necessary information. The topic of developing the database is under discussion.

A regular online group meeting will take place ahead of the F2F meeting on 10^th December 2021.

We’re glad to announce the next NCP meeting that will be taking place from 24-25 November. This meeting will be held face to face in Ljubljana, Slovenia in celebration of the country’s presidency of the Council of the EU.

The Core Group will be gathering on the evening prior to Day 1 of the meeting and throughout the two-day schedule, the agenda will comprise of The Trio’s Presidency priorities, a QROC presentation and one of the security operations centre of the Slovenian police, and other related ENLETS activities. 

Technology Interest Group leaders will also give a briefing on their activities as well as present the future directions, expectations & possible improvements.

If you would like to find out more information feel to go over the agenda and be sure to register for the meeting at contact@enlets.eu (registration is restricted to members only)

Find out more about Slovenian Presidency

The last monthly C-UAS TIG meeting took place on the 26th of October 2021 and this time hosted a representative from ATLAS Forum Innovation. 

At this meeting, the current stage of Subgroup's - detection, neutralisation, regulation, U-Space, forensics, EU Projects and networks - activities were presented. 

Currently, work is underway to disseminate two questionnaires on the legal situation and use of the U-Space concept concerning counter UAS-Technology employed by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA).

The date of the next C-UAS meeting will soon be confirmed and all LEAs are invited to join.

If you would like to take part in similar meetings and you represent a law enforcement agency or similar institution – please complete this application. 

QROC - an ENLETS inspired project - aims to enhance rapid communication between Operational Centres and members of the project met from the 13th-14th of October in Málaga to run through a practical exercise relevant to the project.

The meeting also included presentations of sister projects along with demonstrations of new technologies, a User Community Meeting and QROC General Assembly. 

The main point of the meeting was the second tabletop exercise which evolved around a cross-national CBRN-e accident in which the players represented two different national Operational Centres and had to solve the crises together. 

In the exercise, the participants tested the convenience of new technologies such as Stashcat in improving the speed of communication. QROC is an initiative under the ENLETS umbrella Hence, the network members were invited to this event. In addition to engaging presentations, members had the opportunity to observe tabletop exercises. More importantly, it was the first opportunity for many ENLETS members to meet and talk in person since the pandemic's beginning.

The Financial Investigation group met on the 7th of October for a presentation of the Financial Criminal Investigation Network (FCInet). 

The FCInet is a virtual organisation that connects interested parties enabling them to collaborate, create and share information without revealing its content. Presently, the work of the FI TIG is focused on the preparation of an in-person event expected to take place in the second half of January with the main topic of Data Exchange.

The Digital Forensic subgroup activities are focused on education possibilities in different countries, and on the 9th December, the subgroup is meeting from 13:00-16:00 CET.

The following Financial Investigations TIG meeting is expected to take place on the 2nd of December from 14:00-16:15 CET, on the topic of Virtual Currencies. All LEAs are invited to join and participate in this meeting. 

INTERPOL, in coordination with UAS NORWAY, the Norwegian Police and AVENUR carried out a three-day exercise to evaluate and test drone countermeasures in a secure airspace environment. 

Attendees to the event included the leader of the C-UAS TIG, Jarmo Puustinen and three other members of the Group who actively participate in the TIG’s activities.

The real-life exercise was held in Oslo from 28 to 30 September 2021 with the presence of law enforcement, academia and industry experts from Europe testing and assessing drone countermeasures to ensure the safety of an airport environment through the detection, tracking, and identification of drones and their pilots. 

In addition to the exercise, workshops and presentations were held to address drone incursions with a view to evidence retention. 

The systems presented at this event are emerging as essential elements in ensuring the security of airports, airspaces and protecting no-fly zones above cities, prisons, and critical infrastructure. The sessions were, therefore, invaluable as participants shared the best practices and discussed possible future solutions for drone incursions.

In May, the Mobile Solutions TIG met for a presentation to review technology progress and communication solutions in Scotland and the UK.

Chief Inspector Martin Gallagher from Police Scotland and Dr William Graham of Abertay University presented a fascinating overview on the rollout of the Mobile Working Project in Police Scotland. The presentation and back story helped stimulate a useful dialogue on the need for technology and mobile devices in the modern policing strategy. To supplement the session and provide further clarity, Martin Gallagher shared an interesting article regarding the progression of communication and the different ‘ages’ of Policing in the UK. You can read this here.

On the 11th, the second Friday in June 2021, the Enterprise Architect of the Dutch Police presented and shared his experience with the ENLETS Mobile Solutions TIG. 

Due to the nature of the topic, the session was more technical than in recent sessions. However, it was still valuable, as solid architecture is paramount to successful mobile solutions and IT strategy. Unfortunately, there is not too much information we can share on this session in the public domain. However, if you are a law enforcement representative and would like additional details, please consider joining the ENLETS community to access this and other useful content.

The group will take a short break over the summer months – returning in September to continue tackling the most pertinent topic for the ENLETS Mobile Solutions network.

The most recent Financial TIG was for the Digital Forensic subgroup, which took place on the 8th July 2021.

The meeting was dedicated to the future activities of the group. Mr. Freek van der Ploeg (FIOD, the Netherlands) was chosen as the group leader.

In the brainstorming session, the participants decided to focus on the training possibilities offered to the digital investigators. The subgroup is going to create a repository of knowledge containing information about all the trainings, best practices and identified gaps.

During the next meeting, a representative of the Tax and Customs Administration of the Netherlands is going to give a presentation on the topic of multi-party computation. The group will be meeting once a month starting from the 23rd of September. The meeting will be held online, and it will start at 13:00 CEST. The next main Financial TIG meeting will take place on the 16th of September on the subject of Suspicious Transactions. If you want to join this meeting and future sessions, please complete this application.

The monthly C-UAS TIG meeting was held on the 15th of June. During the first part, Paul Hansen from the Joint Research Centre presented JRC’s activities in the counter-drone area. After that, the activities of subgroups were presented.

In July, the detection and neutralisation subgroup started, led by Manuel Izquierdo Colmenero and Veronica Ortiz Leal (Spain), and Dr Alessandro Carini (Italy). The objectives of the subgroups are to understand the needs of LEAs and evaluate the available technologies in the area of detection and neutralisation. In addition, the subgroups put emphasis on the exchange of knowledge and training.

The drone forensic group, under C-UAS, has a new chairman, Mr Christopher Church - a Senior Mobile Forensics Specialist at Digital Forensics Lab Interpol Global Complex for Innovation at Singapore. One purpose of this group is to harmonise the forensic procedures for the UAS through cooperation with INTERPOL and previous ENLETS Forensics TIGs. Chris, we wish you much success in leading the group!

We invite police officers working in the field of drone forensics and other C-UAS related matters to join the subgroups by completing this application.

The latest Financial TIG meeting took place on 10th June covering the subject of Digital Forensics. The meeting was devoted to actual technologies and tools used by practitioners, as well as good practices from real-life investigations.

Our presenters represented tax services from Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. First, we listened to Skatteetaten, Norway on the topic of “Digital Forensic Experience within the Skatteetaten”. Then the FOD, Belgium shed light on the “Digital Forensic Tools and Training programme ” implemented in his institution. Finally, the  Dutch FIOD presented the “E-Discovery at the FIOD“. Overall more than 50 participants took part in the meeting.

On the 8th of July, the Digital Forensic subgroup is meeting to discuss further actions of the group. Moreover, The FI TIG is now going to start planning the next steps for other subgroups of the TIG.

If you would like to take part in similar meetings and you represent a law enforcement agency or similar institution – please complete this application.

The C-UAS Industry Day covers the entire chain of countering unmanned aircraft systems in built-up areas.

There will be solutions presented that cover the detection, identification, neutralisation and tracking of threats.
The events supports the ENLETS goal of forging mutually beneficial relations between industry experts and law enforcement specialists in counter drones matters.

The regular meeting of the ENLETS Core Group; providing an opportunity for members to discuss the most pressing matters and receive updates on recent network activities.

Internet and related investigations are a huge aspect of modern law enforcement. Something that is not widespread, but poses an incredible risk, is the use of deep fake content and other synthetic media.

The upcoming Internet Investigations TIG will tackle this topic in a dedicated workshop session on the 22nd of June 2021.

Besides, the event also provides another useful session that walks members through creating a web scraper showing how it can be used to gather data from websites. Please share the registration link with colleagues. They represent an LEA and be registered to attend.

The Kick-off will present the overview of the Public Order TIG. This includes its organisation, the plan of action - goals, tasks, expected results and next activities.

The regular gathering of the TIG members will be joined by speaker Paul Hansen representing the Joint Research Center of the European Commission.

On the 27th May 2021, the monthly C-UAS TIG meeting was held.

In the first part, Christopher Church from the Digital Forensics Lab Interpol Global Complex for Innovation presented INTERPOL’s experiences with dealing with Unmanned Aircraft Systems. As well as global operational procedures and guidelines related to drone-countering matters.

We are still looking for police officers working in the field of drone forensics and related matters to join the Subgroup. The purpose of this group is, among others, harmonisation of the forensic procedures for the UAS through cooperation with INTERPOL and previous ENLETS Forensics TIGs. If you or your colleagues would like to get involved in this or other specific Subgroups, such as Regulations, U-Space, Detection, Neutralization or EU Project, please complete this application.

The next C-UAS meeting takes place on the 15th June 2021, and the speaker will be Paul Hansen representing the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

In the process of writing the Project Initiation Document, the team decided that the TIG will be re-named to the more appropriate C-UAS (previously C-UAV – with V standing for vehicles) to match the changing lexicon in the field of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles. On 21st April 2021, the monthly C-UAS TIG meeting was held.

Its main purpose was to present the goals, assumptions and further activities of the subgroups, which were chosen in terms of many specific topics in this field.

The TIG will include such subgroups as Regulations, U-Space, Forensics, Detection, Neutralisation and EU Project. In addition, Peter Nilsson, Head of the Network for Police and Border Guard Units at EU Airports (AIRPOL) presented the general background and main mission of the network, as well as the best practices. The final version of the C-UAS Project Initiation Document will be available soon to ENLETS members.

We are happy to announce that the group is also organising an Industry Day. The event will run in June and more details will follow soon. However, we can confirm the meeting will allow group members and other interested LEAs to engage Industry and technology partners that are leading innovation developments in the domain.

If you would like to join the C-UAS, or a specific Subgroup, please complete this application.

The most recent Financial TIG meeting took place on 22nd April 2021 with 'Drones' as the subject of the session.

First, we listened to Jarmo Puustinen (ENLETS NCP FINLAND, Counter-UAS’s TIG Leader) who introduced the participants to the topic of drones, giving the essential information and an overview of drones usage.

Then Manuel Ruiz de Quintanilla (Aeorum, Spain) shed some light on the platform SURVEIRON (Advanced surveillance system for the protection of urban soft targets and urban critical infrastructures) giving a more detailed look into the concept of the drone. The next two speakers - Major of the Central Operative Unit (UCO, Guardia Civil) and a representative of the Dutch FIOD presented how drones are used in their everyday work. Approximately 40 participants listened to those impressive presentations.

The next Financial Investigation TIG session will be held on 10th June 2021.

On the 20th April, the ENLETS Internet Investigations TIG held the first longer session of the year. The meeting was dedicated to some of the priorities the forerunner group has identified.¹

The session was very productive and included a practical workshop on Facebook investigation techniques delivered by Lisette Abercrombie from the Dutch Police.

Second, there was an overview of the use of AI within the Dutch Police delivered by a subject matter expert and leading voice in the Dutch Police. The meeting concluded with a polished walk-through of the MAGNETO platform developed during the H2020-funded project MAGNETO.

If you represent an LEA or affiliated institution and would like to participate in future sessions with similar content – please join the ENLETS community.

¹ Forerunner group consists of active members that have been involved in the ENLETS community in recent years. Access to the group is not restricted; the Forerunner sessions simply provide a space for those with keen interest - and capacity to manage additional tasks – to proactively contribute to the direction and focus areas of the Internet Investigation Technology Interest Group.

The latest TIG meeting held on the 9th of April, whose discussion was led by the Dutch Police, centred around the Mission-Critical Communications.

The presentation highlighted how important this issue is across policing and emergency services generally. Therefore, we would like to share a key message from this session: “If countries are starting Mission Critical related projects, reach out through the ENLETS community; let us connect and support each other. Likewise, we can share the latest information and make sure all parties are well-informed and aware of what is happening.”