This is a republishing of a post from the blog of a good friend of mine who is a canny observer of all things intelligence. The blog is called Travels with Shiloh.

"Last week, while listening to my Radio Sweden podcast, I heard this story about something called the ‘Alcatraz List’. It seems it is a list developed by Swedish law enforcement of the ‘most dangerous’ criminals in the country and there are concerns that it might not have been worth the expense to create it given that only half of the people on the list have received any jail time in the three years the list has been in existence. The story was pretty sparse on details so there wasn’t much to say. I did a bit of poking around on this wonderful series of tubes that is the internets and found this summary of report evaluating 14 initiatives designed to fight organized crime. Thank god the Swedes love to 1) do research, 2) write about it and 3) translate it."

To read the complete post please click on the title, "The Swedish Response to Organized Crime".

Read more...

Boiler Room Fraud - Operation Archway

City of London Police is responsible for co-ordinating Operation Archway, the national intelligence reporting system for mass share-marketing, or boiler room, fraud: a crime where investors are cold-called by bogus stockbrokers and persuaded to either buy worthless or non-existent shares, or to buy genuine shares at vastly inflated prices.

A 'boiler room' is a bogus stockbroking company, usually based overseas, which cold-calls investors and pressures them into buying worthless shares. Historically, those targeted were older people with previous experience of investments or share dealing, who typically lost £20,000 each to the fraudsters; 50% of investors today are aged over 65. The biggest individual loss to date recorded by Operation Archway is £1.2 million. In the current economic climate, boiler rooms are starting to target victims who have redundancy money or those who are not experienced investors, and are asking for smaller sums of money to invest.

Those operating the boiler rooms have developed new strategies to target investors, such as a promise to recover monies lost to the original boiler room, or to purchase these worthless shares (once an up-front fee has been paid). In addition, investors are being encouraged to sell previously highly regarded 'blue chip' company shares, such as banks and financial institutions and to invest in green or new technology shares marketed by the boiler rooms, or even to take out loans to fund new investments.

Read more...

Island's 'abuse model' a success

Next Thursday (3 December 2009), is the final session of the Freedom Programme, run by former RAF intelligence analyst Fiona Gwinnett. In a nondescript social services building in the town of Newport, Isle of Wight, up to 19 women have been sitting beside each other for two-hour sessions over the past 12 weeks. They have both laughed and cried while sharing their experiences at the hands of their abusive partners.

Many of them will have been referred there by Hampshire Constabulary's domestic abuse officers in the force's public protection unit. Freedom's statistics suggest the approach is working - 260 women attended the programme in 2008. The figures have risen this year - 167 abused women were on the scheme in the first six months.

The increase shows more cases of abuse are being identified meaning more victims can be helped. Instead of attending "domestic incidents" just to keep the peace, police officers are reporting cases to the force public protection unit.

Read more...

Florida's Silver Alert Plan

Governor Charlie Crist today recognized the one-year anniversary of Florida’s Silver Alert Plan in October and praised its success in helping return 18 missing elderly persons back home safely. “I’m pleased and proud of the way this program has worked as a safety net for some of our most vulnerable citizens,” said Governor Crist. “I thank our citizens for paying attention to the Silver Alerts, and for doing their part to call in the information law enforcement needs to safely locate these seniors.”

Florida’s Silver Alert Plan was made effective by an Executive Order signed by the Governor on October 8, 2008, and is a standardized system to aid local law enforcement in the rescue of an elderly person with a cognitive impairment who goes missing. The plan calls for the broadcast of important information via the media and highway message signs (in cases involving a vehicle) to enlist citizens in the search for an endangered senior. To date, 115 Silver Alerts have been issued – 110 individuals were located safely, with 18 of those recoveries attributed directly to the Silver Alert.

Read more...

2009 Hide His Gun advertising campaign launched

'Hide his gun and help commit the crime' is the message behind Trident's latest publicity campaign. Trident, the Metropolitan Police partnership with London's black communities, has developed the campaign to target 15-19 year old women of African and African-Caribbean heritage who are increasingly becoming involved in the movement and storage of firearms, on behalf of others.

The campaign illustrates that girls who carry and store guns for others are helping to commit the crime, both morally and in the eyes of the law.

There is also a wider community message which encourages people to come forward with information to Crimestoppers. The campaign uses a combination of powerful imagery on posters and storytelling through radio and cinema advertising to engage with the target audience. The posters are being used across poster sites and on female washroom panels in pubs and bars, as well as being distributed to shops via street teams handing out flyers.

Read more...

ANPR Intercept Team Hits the Road

A special police team dedicated to tackling criminals spotted by ANPR cameras, has begun operating across West Yorkshire.

The ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) Intercept Team is made up of officers from West Yorkshire Police’s Operations Support Division, based at Carrgate, who are perfectly placed to respond to ANPR hits on the county’s roads.

West Yorkshire Police’s ANPR system uses a network of cameras which scan the number plates of vehicles and runs them through police and insurance databases. If a vehicle that has committed an offence is spotted, the police intercept it.

ANPR was first used by West Yorkshire Police eight years ago, when in its fledgling state it comprised a van and a laptop. Today ANPR in West Yorkshire is one of the best in the country and is made up of around 210 cameras which are linked to other police systems such as CCTV and in-car cameras. All of this provides the police with increased intelligence to tackle criminality on the roads.

Read more...

Violence Reduction Unit - Strathclyde Police

The police-led Violence Reduction Unit was established in 2005 to work on long-term solutions for tackling violent crime in Scotland. It began with the Strathclyde Police but has been adopted all over Scotland.

It targets violence in all its forms – in schools and the workplace, to violence on our streets and domestic abuse. The Unit has been co-ordinating the Safer Scotland initiative, which was launched last April. As part of that campaign over 12,500 weapons were surrendered to police forces across the country during a knife amnesty.

Based at Strathclyde Police Force Headquarters, the VRU works closely with other professionals, including social workers, health experts and academics. Together, they share information to develop a better understanding of violent behaviour. This is used to create strategies for tackling violent behaviour and to challenge attitudes in society.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan leads the team, working with a detective sergeant, a principal analyst, an analyst co-ordinator, a researcher, a community safety inspector and an admin officer. The Unit can be contacted at violence.reduction@strathclyde.pnn.police.uk. Alternatively check out the website www.actiononviolence.co.uk

Read more...