The serious organised crime agency: Should we be afraid?

Criminal Law Review

Volumn , Issue DEC., 2006, Pages 1019-1034

  Bowling, Ben ^a   Ross, James ^b  

^a KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b Pupil Barrister at Gough Square Chambers ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

Accountability; Investigatory powers; Organised crime; Police officers; Serious Organised Crime Agency; Transborder crime

Indexed keywords

EID: 33845651816     PISSN: 0011135X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (77)

1. The authors would like to thank Alan Norrie, Enver Solomon and the anonymous reviewers of the Criminal Law Review for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. It draws on a shorter treatment of these ideas, published in Criminal Justice Matters, the magazine of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, King's College, London. The title refers to an article by David Corker entitled "Soca has More Powers than We Realise-Be Afraid" published in the Times Law Supplement on May 9, 2006.
2. One Step Ahead: a 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised Crime, White Paper, Cm. 6167 (March 2004).
3. White Paper, fn.2 above, p.7.
4. White Paper, fn.2 above, p.8.
5. White Paper, fn.2 above, p.8.
6. This estimate was subsequently scaled back to £20 billion in the first annual plan for the Serious Organised Crime Agency: SOCA Annual Plan 2006-2007, p.5: www.soca.gov.uk.
7. White Paper, fn.2 above, pp.8-9.
8. White Paper, fn.2 above, p.7.
9. The Government's Drugs Policy: Is It Working?, Cm.5573 (HMSO, 2002) (the Government's Reply to the Third Report from the Home Affairs Committee Session 2001-2002 HC 318), p.5.
10. Around three-quarters of crack and heroin users claim to be committing crime to feed their habit. 75% of persistent offenders have misused drugs and arrestees who use heroin or cocaine commit almost 10 times as many offences as those arrestees who do not use drugs. The Government's Drugs Policy: Is It Working?, Cm.5573 (HMSO, 2002) (the Government's Reply to the Third Report from the Home Affairs Committee Session 2001-2002 HC 318), p.5.
11. One Step Ahead: a 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised Crime White Paper, Cm.6167 (March 2004), p. 10.
12. P. Gill, Rounding Up the Usual Suspects? Developments in Contemporary Law Enforcement Intelligence (Ashgate, 2000).
13. NCIS website: www.ncis.co.uk What is NCIS?, Monday, February 13, 2006.
14. Home Affairs Committee, Organised Crime, HC 18, 1994-95, May 17, 1995.
15. House of Commons Library Research Paper 04/88, The Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill-the New Agency and New Powers in Criminal Proceedings, December 2, 2004, p.9.
16. Federal Bureau of Investigation website: www.fbi.gov
17. Home Office, Summary of Responses to White Paper, One Step Ahead: a 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised Crime, Cm.6167, p.3: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ documents/consorganised-crime-300704/.
18. House of Commons Library Research Paper 04/88, The Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill-the New Agency and New Powers in Criminal Proceedings, December 2, 2004, p. 14.
19. fn.17 above, p.14.
20. ACPO Press Release 40/04, "ACPO Respond to Organised Crime White Paper", March 29, 2004: www.acpo.police.uk/news/2004/q1/org_crime.html.
21. Both Justice and Liberty noted that compelling individuals to give information, as a general rule, is suspect under Art.6(1) of the European Convention of Human Rights, which confers a right to remain silent and not self-incriminate-see fn.14 above.
22. Police Federation Press Release, "SOCA must be Staffed by Police Officers to Work Effectively", January 11, 2005: www.polfed.org/pr.SOCA- FINAL100105.pdf.
23. Police Federation Press Release, "Federation Warns Stand Alone SOCA is a Recipe for Disaster", November 23, 2004.
24. Former director-general of MI5 (1996-2002).
25. Former director-general of the National Crime Squad (2000-2006).
26. The four executive directors are respectively David Bolt (former deputy director of NCIS), Malcolm Cornberg (former finance director of NCS), Paul Evans (former director of Investigations at Customs and Excise) and Trevor Pearce (former acting director-general of NCS): Police magazine, April 2005.
27. The five non-executive directors (and their stated employment as at April 2006) are Stephen Barrett (international chair, corporate finance at KPMG), Elizabeth France (Telecommunications Ombudsman), Ken Jarrold (former chief executive of County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority), Janet Paraskeva (chief executive of the Law Society and First Civil Service Commissioner) and General Sir Roger Wheeler (former Chief of the General Staff) SOCA Annual Plan 2006-2007, p.6: www.soca.gov.uk.
28. SOCA Annual Plan 2006-2007, p.6: www.soca.gov.uk.
29. House of Commons Library Research Paper 04/88, The Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill-the New Agency and New Powers in Criminal Proceedings, December 2, 2004, p.9.
30. Dennis O'Connor, "Closing the Gap", HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, September 16, 2005.
31. SOCA Annual Plan 2006-2007, p.7: www.soca.gov.uk.
32. Police Federation News, Issue 23, "Don't Join Yet", February 2005.
33. Police magazine, interview with Bill Hughes, April 2005, p.21.
34. Peter Neyroud, "National Policing Improvement Agency: Central to Change" (2006) 63 Criminal Justice Matters, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
35. Police Federation News, Issue 23, "SOCA must be Staffed by Police Officers", February 2005.
36. SOCA Annual Report 2006-2007, p.8: www.soca.gov.uk.
37. Public Servant magazine, "Why Beating a £40bn a Year Racket is More than a Numbers Game, August 12, 2005.
38. Police magazine, November 2005, p.7.
39. Police magazine, April 2005, p.20.
40. One Step Ahead: a 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised Crime, White Paper, Cm.6167 (March 2004), p.12.
41. SOCA Annual Report 2006-2007, p.9: www.soca.gov.uk.
42. Blackstone's Guide to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, (OUP, 2005), p.19. The relevant sections of the Act are ss.60-70.
43. Blackstone's Guide, fn.41 above, p.20.
44. The Times Law Supplement, May 9, 2006, p5.
45. Blackstone's Guide, fn.41 above, p.2.
46. B. Bowling and J. Foster, "Policing and the Police" in M. Maguire et al., The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (3rd edn, Oxford University Press, 2002).
47. As criticised by the Police Federation Press Release, "SOCA must be Staffed by Police Officers to Work Effectively", January 11, 2005.
48. Sch.1 and s.10(8) of the Act.
49. Police magazine, April 2005, p.7.
50. Police Federation News, February 2005.
51. See fns 23-26 above
52. s.17(4)(b) provides that a police authority or chief officer is not required "to provide, produce or deliver up anything at all in a case in which it never becomes practicable for that authority or chief officer to do so."
53. See s.158 of the Act and www.soca.gov.uk.
54. SOCA Annual Plan 2006-2007, p.9: www.soca.gov.uk.
55. SOCA Annual Plan 2006-2007, p12.
56. Review of criminal investigations and prosecutions conducted by HM Customs and Excise by the Hon Mr Justice Butterfield, July 15, 2003, p.163.
57. fn.57 above, p.159.
58. Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office website: About Us-Background: www.rcpo.gov.uk/rcpo/about/background.shtml.
59. W. Edward Deming, Out of the Crisis (2nd edn, MIT Press, 2000).
60. Public Servant magazine, "Why Beating a £40bn a Year Racket is More than a Numbers Game", August 12, 2005.
61. fn.59 above.
62. J. W. E. Sheptycki, (2000) "Introduction" in James Sheptycki (ed.), Issues in Transnational Policing (Routledge, London, 2000).
63. Sheptycki, (2002b).
64. B. Bowling, "Sovereignty vs Security? Transnational Policing in the Contemporary Caribbean" (2006) Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Social Psychology 10 (1&2), 26-50
65. J. W. E. Sheptycki. In In Search of Transnational Policing (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002)
66. British Embassy, Tirana, website: "Special Feature: Serious Organised Crime Agency", May 26, 2006: www.britishembassy.gov.uk.
67. SOCA Annual Plan 2006-2007, p.7: www.soca.gov.uk.
68. B. Bowling, fn.63 above
69. Home Office, "From Policing the Local Beat to Disrupting Global Crime Networks: Reforming the Structure of Policing in the 21st Century" (leaflet explaining the five levels of policing, Home Office, London, 2006).
70. "Drug Mules Arrests Soar" BBC News, July 10, 2003: www.news.bbc.co.uk.
71. This assessment is based on the 12-fold increase in couriers detected at airports in the region and a two-thirds decrease in those being detected in the UK: "Swabs Tackle Jamaican Drug Mules", BBC News, November 21, 2002: www.nevis.bbc.co.uk.
72. The street price of cocaine in the UK dropped from £63 to £51 per gramme between 1999 and 2004. Hansard, Written Answers, col.1103W (March 1, 2005). The British Crime Survey shows that cocaine use rose until 2000 and has remained stable since then. Stephen Rowe, Drugs Misuse Declared: Findings from the 2004/05 British Crime Survey (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 16/05, Home Office, London).
73. The UN World Drug Report, similarly, shows a marked reduction in cocaine wholesale and retail prices across Europe and the US: UN World Drug Report 2005 (United Nations Publications: www.unodc.org).
74. See Sch.1 and s.10 of the Act.
75. If, for example, a disclosure notice has been issued: see ss.62(3) and 67 of the Act.
76. See the editorial, "Legislative Overkill" in the Criminal Law Review, June 2005.
77. I. Loader, "Fall of the 'Platonic Guardians': Liberalism, Criminology and Political Responses to Crime in England and Wales" in (2006) 46 British Journal of Criminology, 561-586