£2m police unit set up to protect Brits after Brexit

Brexit will make it harder for police to protect citizens, says chairwoman of National Police Chiefs Council
Senior officers say they will lose access to the European Arrest Warrant, which would hinder the hunt for the Russian spies suspected of carrying out the Novichok attack in Salisbury
PA/Met Police
Justin Davenport18 September 2018

Police have launched a £2 million unit to plan for a hard-Brexit amid warnings that it will be harder to protect the public after Britain leaves the EU.

Senior officers say investigators will lose access to 40 crime fighting tools, including the European Arrest Warrant, which would hinder cross-border investigations such as the hunt for the Russian intelligence officers suspected of the Salisbury Novichok attack.

The warning came from the National Police Chiefs Council chairwoman Sara Thornton, who said fall-back options would be slower and less effective.

She said: “It will make it harder to protect UK and EU citizens. We are determined to do everything we can to mitigate that but it I will be harder.”

Officers said one EU crime-fighting tool, the Schengen Information System database, was accessed by police 539million times last year.

Ms Thornton added: “Existing EU tools allows us to respond quickly and intelligently to crime and terrorism in the UK and the EU - they make us better at protecting the public.”

She said the alternatives were slower, more bureaucratic and “ultimately less effective.”

Deputy assistant commissioner Richard Martin, the national police lead for Brexit, said if police lost the EU tools they could no longer share real-time alerts for wanted persons, including serious criminals.

Police would also be slower responding to missing people on either side of the Channel.

The ability to track and map terrorist and criminal networks across Europe would also be reduced.

DAC Martin said: “Criminals don’t respect borders - 70 per cent of transient organised crime groups operate in more than three countries.”

He added: “If we lose all these tools it becomes much more challenging. Policing does not stop, but it will be slower and less effective.”

Chief constable Charlie Hall emphasised that there was no intelligence of widespread disorder but they were planning for every eventuality.

Police said it would take longer to identify foreign criminals being held in custody in the UK.

The 50-strong teams planning for a hard-Brexit will include police and civilian staff.

It will focus on helping police forces with using fall back alternatives if the U.K. suddenly loses its access to the current EU data sharing and cooperation tools.

Police will have to revert to bilateral agreements and Interpol.

The EAW came into operation in 2004 and allows for the speedy extradition of suspects from one European country to another to face trial or serve a prison sentence.

Since it came into force, the average time taken to extradite a suspect has fallen from around a year to 48 days.

The EAW was used in the case of Hussain Osman, who was wanted in connection with the 21 July 2005 attempted London bombings. Extradited from Italy in September 2005, he was subsequently sentenced to 40 years in prison.

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