National Crime Agency

This article is about the United Kingdom law enforcement agency. For the former Australian agency, see National Crime Authority.
National Crime Agency
Abbreviation NCA

Logo
Agency overview
Formed 7 October 2013
Preceding agencies
Annual budget £448 million (2015/2016)[1]
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency
(Operations jurisdiction)		 United Kingdom
Jurisdiction of the National Crime Agency
Population 63,182,178[2]
Legal jurisdiction Full in England and Wales and Northern Ireland; limited in Scotland
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters 1 – 6 Citadel Place, Tinworth Street, London SE11 5EF
Sworn Officers 1,791
Overall workforces 4194
Elected officer responsible Amber Rudd, Home Secretary
Agency executive Lynne Owens, Director-General
Parent agency Home Office
Child agencies
Website
www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk
National Crime Agency, London.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement and police agency in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2013 as a non-ministerial government department,[3] replacing the Serious Organised Crime Agency and absorbing the formerly separate CEOP as one of its commands.[4] It also assumed a number of responsibilities of other law enforcement agencies.

It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cyber crime; and economic crime that goes across regional and international borders, but can be tasked to investigate any crime. The NCA has a strategic role in which it looks at the bigger picture across the UK, analysing how criminals are operating and how they can be disrupted. To do this it works closely with regional organised crime units (ROCUs), the Serious Fraud Office, as well as individual police forces. It is the UK point of contact for foreign agencies such as Interpol, Europol and other international law enforcement agencies. The NCA Director-General, Lynne Owens, has the power to direct regional police chiefs to concentrate their resources where necessary,[5] making her one of the most senior law enforcement leader in the country.[6]

The NCA has also taken on a range of functions from the National Policing Improvement Agency that has been scrapped as part of the government's changes to policing.[7] These include a specialist database relating to injuries and unusual weapons, expert research on potential serial killers, and the National Missing Persons Bureau. The agencies going into the NCA had a combined budget of £812m, yet the new agency only had £464m in its first year, so the new agency had already had 43% cut before it had started operating.[8] Some of the responsibilities of the former UK Border Agency (now Border Force) relating to border policing also became part of the NCA. Like its predecessor SOCA, the NCA has been dubbed the "British FBI" by the media.[5]

History

The proposed agency was first publicly announced in a statement to the House of Commons by Home Secretary Theresa May on 26 July 2010.[9] On 8 June 2011 Theresa May declared that the NCA will comprise a number of distinct operational commands: Organised Crime, Border Policing, Economic Crime and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre – and that it will house the National Cyber Crime Unit. She added that capabilities, expertise, assets and intelligence will be shared across the new agency; that each Command will operate as part of one single organisation; and that the NCA will be a powerful body of operational crime fighters, led by a senior Chief Constable and accountable to the Home Secretary. In her statement to the House of Commons, Theresa May stated that the new agency would have the authority to "undertake tasking and coordination, ensuring appropriate action is taken to put a stop to the activities of organised crime groups".[10]

In June 2011, the coalition government announced that SOCA's operations (serious drug trafficking investigative and intelligence sections) would be merged into a larger National Crime Agency to launch in 2013.

On 23 September 2011 the Home Affairs Select Committee called for the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism role be given to the NCA when it becomes operational saying that the terrorist threat is a "national problem" and that there would be "advantages" in transferring responsibility.[11][12] The Metropolitan police raised concerns around the cost of such a move.[13]

The Home affairs select committee met again on 9 May 2014 to discuss counter terrorism.[14] As a part of the report the committee reconsidered the question of moving counter terrorism responsibilities to the NCA. The committee came to conclusion that “The Metropolitan Police have a wide remit which has many complexities and the current difficulties faced by the organisation lead us to believe that the responsibility for counter-terrorism ought to be moved to the NCA in order to allow the Met to focus on the basics of policing London. The work to transfer the command ought to begin immediately with a view to a full transfer of responsibility for counter-terrorism operations taking place, for example within five years after the NCA became operational, in 2018. When this takes place, it should finally complete the jigsaw of the new landscape of policing.”[15][16]

However the report acknowledges that the NCA is still a new agency and that at the time it was not fully operational in Northern Ireland. Questions have been raised as to how effective this model would be[17] and, with a limited budget, whether other responsibilities would suffer and not be resourced as properly as they should be.[18] If the whole of Counter Terrorism Command were to transfer from the Metropolitan police to the NCA, the NCA would receive a further 1,500 officers or more if other counter terrorism units transferred in as well. It raised the question of what other National police units could be absorbed into the NCA, such as the National Wildlife Crime Unit, National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit, National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service and other units with a national remit from ACPO, the Metropolitan Police and other forces. Plans are being discussed for the second time of moving the Serious Fraud Office into the NCA.[19]

The process of looking at moving counter terrorism into the NCA was put on hold on 9 October 2014 by the Home secretary Theresa May due to an increase in the terror threat level.[20]

In October 2011, it was announced that Keith Bristow, the then Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police, would head the organisation.[21]

The NCA came into being under provisions granted by the Crime and Courts Act 2013 which received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013.[22]

Until 20 May 2015, the agency was only able to carry out border and customs functions in Northern Ireland. This was due to the fact that under the 1998 Good Friday agreement that led to a political settlement and power-sharing in Northern Ireland, policing was subjected to a far higher degree of community oversight and monitoring than in other parts of the UK. The chief constable and officers are responsible to the Policing Board.[23][24]

Jurisdiction

Within the United Kingdom the NCA has full operational capacity in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

Powers

The NCA's operations and powers in Scotland are limited to those inherited from its predecessor, the Serious Organised Crime Agency whose powers to operate in Scotland were conditional on authorisation from and/or co-operation with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (a police force which was responsible for similar matters in Scotland and which has since been subsumed into Police Scotland) or the Lord Advocate.

In Northern Ireland the NCA is fully operational. However, unlike in England and Wales the Home Secretary does not have a final decision making power. This rests with the Chief of the Northern Ireland Police Service.

NCA Officers can be designated the powers of a constable, customs officer, immigration officer, or any combination of these three sets of powers. In the case of all three, this is known as "Triple Warranted".[25]

Challenges

The NCA faces several challenges over the next few years. The first of these is the scale of the growing problem facing them. At the end of 2014 UK law enforcement estimated there were 5,800 organised crime groups – comprising some 40,600 individuals. This is an increase of three hundred organised crime groups and 3,500 people on the year before.The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that there are as many as 50,000 people in the UK involved in the downloading and viewing of indecent images online. The Director General of the NCA has suggested that the British public cannot expect every person viewing indecent images to enter the criminal justice system – not least because of the sheer scale of the problem. The NCA received 12,505 referrals from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (based in Washington DC) in its first 12 months, compared to 9,855 in 2012, an increase of almost 27 per cent. Tackling modern slavery is another area that the Home Secretary has identified as requiring more effort. The Home Office’s Chief Scientific Adviser estimates that there may have been as many as 13,000 potential victims of modern slavery in the UK in 2013. Most will rely on the services of organised criminal groups at some point in their journey to the UK.[26]

In addition to this the NCA has been tasked with the Rotherham investigation into child sex exploitation. According to the NCA there are 3,300 lines of enquiry, around 1,400 victims and 300 suspects.

The second challenge of funding and resources, links with the first challenge. Although the NCA Budget is half a billion pounds in proportion to the scale of the problem its small. The combined budget of previous agencies and units that make up the NCA was almost a billion pounds, so the agency has had an almost 50% cut before its creation.[8] The NCA also has only 5000 staff, again small when faced with the problem. For the Rotherham investigation the NCA has had to bring in agency staff who are ex-police to assist with the scale of the investigation.

Thirdly there is the challenge of the "failure" of its predecessor agencies, SOCA and the National Crime squad and the fact that its success needs to be judged over years and not months due to the nature of the threat. SOCA was criticised for poor management and that some staff had poor investigation skills due to not working in law enforcement before. Its suggested that around 300 police detectives left SOCA due to this. With the NCA having the same staff this could be an issue. The NCA has already been criticised for not seizing enough assets (even though they seized more than SOCA in their last year of operation[27] as well as using a search warrant that was judged to be illegal after staff at the agency were "deliberately trying to stretch the boundaries imposed upon such investigation agencies by the statutory scheme under which they operate”. The judge Mr Justice Hickinbottom stated though “This case smacks of incompetence, not bad faith.”[28]

Organisational structure

Organization chart for the NCA

The NCA is organised into eight operational branches, overseen by seven directors, who are in turn overseen by a Director-General, assisted by a Deputy Director General.[29] The commands are as follows:

The Assets Recovery Agency became part of the Serious Organised Crime Agency from April 2008. This then became the Proceeds of Crime Centre in the NCA. The power to launch civil recovery proceedings has also been extended to the three main prosecutors in England and Wales: the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). It will also be extended to the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland.

The Missing Persons Bureau (MPB) transferred to SOCA in April 2012 along with SCAS. It had previously been based at New Scotland Yard until April 2008 when it was moved to the NPIA and based in Bramshill.

The bureau acts as the centre for the exchange of information connected with the search for missing persons nationally and internationally. It is responsible for cross-matching missing persons with unidentified persons or bodies, as well as maintaining an index of dental records of missing persons and unidentified bodies.

The MPB also manages a missing persons and Child Rescue Alert website, and analyses data to identify trends and patterns in disappearances.

The National Injuries Database also transferred from the NPIA. It provides additional support to police forces by providing analysis of weapons and wounds, and seeking to identify similarities to aid investigators in determining which weapon may have been used. The database holds over 4,000 cases of suspicious deaths, murders and clinical cases, and contains over 20,000 images.

SOCA via the UK Financial Intelligence Unit took over responsibility for dealing with suspicious activity reports (SARs), previously made to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) under the money laundering legislation. This function is now part of NCA.

NCIS received just under 200,000 SARs in 2005 and throughout its life was heavily critical of the banking and financial services sector, and the Financial Services Authority, for not being more transparent or forthcoming in reporting their customers' suspicious activity.

Despite criticism from professional representative bodies that the disclosure rules are too broad, SOCA said that up to one in three SARs lead to or add substantially to terrorism investigations; that HMRC estimates that around one in five SARs identifies new subjects of interest, and one in four SARs lead to direct tax enquiries; and many arrests and confiscations of criminal assets.

The Serious Crime Analysis Section moved to SOCA from the National Policing Improvement Agency on 1 April 2012 in advance of the planned establishment of the National Crime Agency in 2013. SCAS is based at Foxley Hall in the grounds of the Police Staff College, Bramshill in Hampshire.[30] It was originally formed by the Home Office in 1998 to identify the potential emergence of serial killers and serial rapists at the earliest stage of their offending. This scope has since broadened to include the analysis by specialist staff of rapes, serious sexual assaults and motiveless or sexually motivated murders.

Criminal case files are received by SCAS from all police forces in the UK at an early stage in the investigations. The information is coded and placed on a single database, ViCLAS (Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System). The system was developed in Canada by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The investigating officer receives a report from a crime analyst with a number of key elements designed to assist the investigation. It will identify if there are grounds to believe that the offender has previously been identified. It will also provide a breakdown of the behaviour exhibited in the offence, often with a statistical description of some of the elements involved. This can alert an investigator to the importance of some aspects of the offence not immediately apparent. SCAS are also responsible for identifying good practice, or "what works", so the analyst's report may contain "investigative suggestions" that might guide the officer to a specific line of enquiry not yet considered. The report may also suggest possible suspects that the unit has identified from a number of databases. When a prime suspect has been identified and charged with an offence, senior analysts are able to provide specialist evidence in court, to assist with the prosecution of offenders.

The NCA is the UK single point of contact for Interpol, Europol and the Schengen Information System, and also the point of contact for international enquiries from all UK police and law enforcement agencies. It has 24/7 capacity for Interpol and Europol with direct connections to their databases, provides international Liaison Officers, and co-ordinates all inbound and outbound Cross Border Surveillance requests with Schengen partners. It also has a dedicated Fugitives Unit that acts as the UK Central Authority for all European Arrest Warrants (EAW).

Board of directors

Role Post holder
Director-General (Chair) Lynne Owens QPM CBE
Deputy Director General David Armond QPM
Director CEOP Command Johnny Gwynne
Director of Intelligence and Operations Mark Webster
Director of Change & Finance Tim Symington
Director of Organised Crime Command Ian Cruxton
Director of Economic Crime Command Donald Toon
Director of Corporate Services Sue Steen
Director of National Cyber Crime Unit Jamie Saunders
Director of Technology Command Gerry Cantwell
Non-executive Director Jane Furniss CBE
Non-executive Director Dr Stephen Page
Non-executive Director Justin Dowley

Regional Organised Crime Units

In 2010, 9 Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCU'S) were created across England and Wales outside of London to investigate Organised crime in their region and to support the NCA. Each ROCU is supported by a Regional Intelligence Unit which is staffed by police officers and staff from each ROCU's constituent force.[32] The Police Service of Northern Ireland, Police Scotland, the City of London Police, and the Metropolitan Police Service each have individual organised crime units which also support the NCA.

ROCUs

Specialised teams and functions

Regional Organised Crime Units bring together a number of specialised teams and functions under the one structure:[41]

Notable operations

On 22 May 2014 at around 22:50, NCA Officers were involved in a shootout in Tottenham.[42] Several shots were fired, including from NCA Officers. Two men were arrested at the scene by the NCA for attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. The Metropolitan police arrived and arrested a third man for possession of a firearm.[43][44] This is believed to be the first incident in which NCA officers fired shots.

On 25 May 2014 at 00:00 hrs, a second NCA operation was carried out in Tottenham, along with officers from the Metropolitan police, after the NCA received intelligence about the earlier shoot out. Two more men were arrested, one for attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and the other for assisting an offender, after their car was stopped by armed officers. One shot was fired by a Metropolitan police officer during the operation.[45]

In May 2014 the NCA conducted a major operation that resulted in the seizing of more than 100 kg of cocaine from a Greek bulk freighter in Scotland. The ship had been returning from Colombia; the operation resulted in the arrest of three men.[46]

In July 2014 the NCA with partners jointly disrupted the "Shylock" banking trojan believed to have infected at least 30,000 computers.[47]

Also in July 2014 the NCA co-ordinated the arrest of 660 suspected paedophiles. 39 of those arrested were registered sex offenders, but the majority had not previously come to the attention of law enforcement. 400 children are believed to have been protected by this operation, which included apprehending several individuals who had unsupervised access to children such as doctors, teachers and care workers.[48][49][50]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "NCA Annual Report 2015/2016". National Crime Agency. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "2011 UK censuses". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  3. ↑ "How we are run". NCA. 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "National Crime Agency". GOV.UK. 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  5. 1 2 Johnston, Philip (7 October 2013). "The National Crime Agency: Does Britain need an FBI?". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Hughes, Mark; Gardham, Duncan (8 June 2011). "National Crime Agency head will be 'most powerful officer in UK'". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  7. ↑ "Police reform proposals outlined". BBC News. 26 July 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Vaz asks whether the NCA's budget will be big enough – ITV News". Itv.com. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Theresa May, Home Secretary (26 July 2010). "Hansard". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. col. 723–724.
  10. ↑ "National Crime Agency details outlined by Theresa May". BBC News. 8 June 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Home Affairs Committee (23 September 2011). New Landscape of Policing: Volume 1 (PDF) (Report). London: The Stationery Office. p. 43. Retrieved 12 August 2013. Although London is a prime target for terrorist attacks, the terrorist threat is a national problem and there would be advantages in placing responsibility for counter-terrorism in the National Crime Agency
  12. ↑ "Met Police counter-terrorism role should end, MPs say". BBC News Online. BBC News. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  13. ↑ Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ↑ "Strip Met Police of counter-terror duties, say MPs – BBC News". Bbc.co.uk. 9 May 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "House of Commons – Counter-terrorism – Home Affairs Committee". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "House of Commons – Counter-terrorism – Home Affairs Committee". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Matthew Weaver. "Police chiefs condemn call to strip Met of counter-terrorism powers | UK news". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  18. ↑ "Ready or Not? The NCA and Counter-Terrorism – Future Foreign PolicyFuture Foreign Policy". Futureforeignpolicy.com. 6 June 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  19. ↑ "Theresa May revives attempt to abolish SFO". Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  20. ↑ "Theresa May postpones terrorism policing review". BBC News. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  21. ↑ "UK National Crime Agency head to be Keith Bristow". BBC News. 10 October 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  22. ↑ "Crime and Courts Bill receives Royal Assent". Home Office. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  23. ↑ "Q&A: National Crime Agency". BBC News. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  24. ↑ "National Crime Agency block burdens PSNI says David Ford". BBC News. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  25. ↑ http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/about-us/how-we-are-run. Retrieved 7 November 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ↑ "RUSI - Disrupting Organised Crime: Finding the Money". 2015-07-05. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  27. ↑ Alan Travis. "National Crime Agency must claw back more criminal assets, MPs say". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  28. ↑ "UK's National Crime Agency slammed by judge for using unlawful search warrants to plant surveillance device". Belfast Telegraph. 13 May 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  29. ↑ "NCA – How we are run". National Crime Agency. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  30. ↑ "Secrets of the crime analysts". BBC News. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  31. ↑ "NCA – Working in Partnership". National Crime Agency. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  32. ↑ "About Us – Eastern Region Special Operations Unit". Ersou Rocu. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  33. 1 2 "Eastern Region Special Operations Unit". Ersou Rocu. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  34. ↑ "Serious Organised Crime – East Midlands Police Collaboration". Empcp.org.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  35. ↑ "NERSOU". NERSOU. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  36. ↑ "South East Regional Organised Crime Unit SEROCU". Serocu.org.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  37. ↑ "Home". Tarian ROCU. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  38. ↑ "TITAN – North West Regional Organised Crime Unit". Titanrocu.org.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  39. ↑ "West Midlands ROCU". Wmrocu.org.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  40. ↑ "ZEPHYR". Zephyrswrocu.org.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  41. ↑ http://www.securityandpolicing.co.uk/regional-organised-crime-units-rocus/
  42. ↑ "NCA statement". Nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  43. ↑ "Appeal after shots are fired at National Crime Agency officers – Metropolitan Police Service". Content.met.police.uk. 25 May 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  44. ↑ "Investigation launched after shootout between NCA and civilians". Londonlive.co.uk. 26 May 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  45. ↑ "Police in second armed operation after Tottenham gunfight – three charged with attempted murder". Tottenhamjournal.co.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  46. ↑ Archived 19 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  47. ↑ "Law enforcement and industry collaborate to combat Shylock malware". National Crime Agency. 10 July 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  48. ↑ "UK-wide operation snares 660 suspected paedophiles". National Crime Agency. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  49. ↑ "Paedophile arrests unprecedented, says Internet Watch Foundation". BBC News. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  50. ↑ "Child abuse image investigation leads to 660 arrests". BBC News. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
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