NCPs Combine for Fruitful Meeting in Stockholm, May 2023

For each presidency of the European Council, ENLETS runs a physical meeting for the National Contact Points (#NCPs), representing the European members of the #ENLETS community.

All ENLETS meetings provide a fantastic opportunity to address common challenges, provide progress updates and highlight the activities of each Technology Interest Group (#TIGs) ENLETS host.

Before the official launch of the meeting, the majority of the National Contact Point representatives joined a presentation of the ARICA project, coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior of Finland.

The aim of the project is to assess risk indicators of child sexual abuse. Project representatives (Salla Huikuri, Ph.D., Colm Gannon, and Dr. Alexander Schmidt) explained to ENLETS practitioners how the new tool would contribute to increasing the effectiveness of law enforcement in the fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation. 

More about ARICA: https://www.aricaproject.eu/  

The great part of the NCP meetings is that we hear the specific focus points of the host country. As Sweden currently has the presidency, we were blessed with the attendance of Hampus Nygårds – Deputy Head of the National Department for the Swedish Police Authority. 

The opening keynote highlighted the need for a global approach to deal with current pain points. Collaboration on a European level was emphasised as a key ingredient for success. The Deputy Head also stressed the value ENLETS brings and how the network must continue facilitating the exchange of best practices to foster co–creation and stimulate future research. 

The meeting group heard some of the challenges that Sweden faces in the areas of organised crime and the cascading impact that organised crime has on local communities.  

The first day was productive, providing interesting discussion points covering some of the challenges facing the Swedish Police through industrial investment into northern regions of the country.  

The ENLETS group ran a workshop–style breakout session to discuss several challenges posed by these large–scale investments, framing the discussion around a Police Capability Map presented by the Danish Police. Although covering broad topics, the breakout sessions gave suggestions for our Swedish colleagues to consider in their quest to tackle the issues arising from the growing communities in the country’s industrial North. The diverse range of skills and experience provided helpful thoughts for the Police to consider moving forward.  

The ENLETS group in Stockholm continued discussions into the evening during a group dinner. The social parts of the meetings are also an ideal chance to extend conversations triggered earlier in the day and a chance to explore different views and opinions on common challenges. This is something that is not possible in the online setting.  

The second day started with a wrap–up of the first day’s sessions – what learning points came from the meeting and how this can fuel future activities. 

Moving on, the group looked at an area closely related to the ENLETS #FinancialInvestigation Technology Interest Group. We heard the success stories connected to ‘following the money’ in Sweden and how the Police successfully disrupt criminal networks funding crime.  

The focus is on supporting frontline policing teams – upskilling and supporting 10,000 police officers to deal with the financial aspects of crime. Capability improvement – particularly for frontline policing – sits closely with the aims of ENLETS.  

The NCPs left with a broad overview of the Swedish aims, with tangible good practices that can be filtered to their respective countries. As ever, there was a push for each NCP to include relevant members from their National forces to join and actively contribute to the ENLETS Technology Interest Groups. 

Find out more about the whole event in the report.