The Association of Chief Police Officers - Parliament

Association of Chief Police Officers –Written evidence4.10.4 As a final point, both of these organisations are generally a force for good in terms ofpublic safety and for combating crime. Crime gets more international with eachpassing year, making it harder for countries to act in isolation. This is recognised inthe UK’s organised crime strategy, Local to Global: Reducing the Risk from OrganisedCrime, where it is recognised that the UK must work to “develop our internationalcooperation” to combat organised crime. In the rest of the world, such matters aredealt with under a raft of bilateral and multilateral treaties that are more complicatedthan the EU agreements. Much of our international crime and transient criminalscome from Europe and membership of these organisations makes it far easier totarget them. Removing ourselves from these measures and putting ourselves in theposition of having to re-negotiate 26 treaties on each and every topic, would be amassive step back for UK policing that would benefit no one.4.11 Data Protection4.11.1 As mentioned in appendix B, this concerns the transfer of sensitive material aboutpersons involved in criminal investigations. This could include suspects, witnesses,victims and police officers.4.11.2 It deals not only with the transmission and use of the data, but also with its retentionand ultimate destruction. The safe and justified retention of personal data by UKpolicing is always a matter of public interest. The issue around how a foreignjurisdiction deals with our data is even more vital.4.11.3 Although these areas are met already under domestic legislation, the UK needs toremain a part of this measure. The reason is that other states may not agree to sharesuch data with any other state under these provisions unless they remain within it.More importantly, they would not be bound to apply these safeguards to the data wesent them if the UK ceased to be a part of this measure. The lack of such a universalsafeguard would be unacceptable.5 TPMs that we should Opt back into5.1 In addition to the 13 TPMs that it is vital that we opt back into, there are a further 16that we should opt back into. These are listed in brief terms on Appendix B and wewill cover just one of them (CEPOL) in more detail.5.2 CEPOL5.2.1 CEPOL is the European Police College which is located at Bramshill. It deals withexchange training of senior police officers in the EU.5.2.2 It is not necessary to examine each course and exchange programme that CEPOLoffers, instead it is more sensible to consider its net worth. Given the global natureof crime any facility that assists in training and the sharing of experiences and ideasacross the EU is intrinsically a good thing and a positive force in UK policing.5.2.3 With the college being located in England, it allows UK policing an influence on theway that policing is taught at a senior level across the EU. It also enhances thereputation of UK policing across the EU.16