OCTA 2006: the unfulfilled promise

Abstract

“I am delighted to present the public version of the first European Union’s Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA). The OCTA is a core product of the intelligence led policing concept and its drafting is one of Europol’s top priorities in 2006.” With these words the director of EUROPOL, Mr. Peter Ratzel, welcomed the long awaited approach to assess the threatening impact of organised crime in the European Union. The organised crime threat assessment approach was developed because the European Council felt a need for a more future oriented assessment of organised crime. Merely describing the annual situation of what law enforcement agencies discovered about ‘organised crime’ was increasingly experienced as unsatisfactory. Thus, in 2004 the European Council decided to adopt a future oriented, pro-active approach. Consequently a working group consisting of representatives of the Member States was established out of which a special technical group was formed to deal with the hard core of OCTA: the instrument with which to determine something like an ‘organised crime’ threat. That instrument should consist of a questionnaire to be sent to law enforcement agencies, while also partners from the private sectors and academia would be approached. This resulted in OCTA 2006 of which a public version has been issued in the fall of that year. OCTA does not stand alone. There are other reports on the organised crime situation in various jurisdictions. To value the OCTA 2006 it may be proper to compare this product with some other ‘organised crime’ assessments, like the annual organised situation report of the German Bundeskriminalamt or a nonEuropean organised crime assessment in order not to focus on Europe alone. Naturally, a public report of a public international body should meet proper standards, particularly when it touches such a serious topic as the threat emanating from ‘organised crime’. Therefore the following questions must be addressed: