Committee question PSNI Chief Constable on rise in Organised Crime

As concern about the increase in organised crime activity in Northern Ireland grows, the Committee will be exploring the scope of the problem and the capacity of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to deal with it.

Metadata

Provider:

UK Parliament

URL:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/northern-ireland-affairs-committee/news-parliament-2017/organised-crime-gangs-in-ni-evidence-17-19/

Retrieved on:

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Information

Tags:

Northern Ireland peace process, Prevention, Safety, Government of Northern Ireland, Police Service of Northern Ireland, Police, Organized crime, Government, Organised Crime Task Force, Assessment on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland

Summary

Key Points:

As concern about the increase in organised crime activity in Northern Ireland grows, the Committee will be exploring the scope of the problem and the capacity of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to deal with it.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has publicly estimated that approximately 100 Organised Crime Gangs are currently active in Northern Ireland, with about 10-15% of these having foreign dimensions.
Despite the breadth of the issue, a former senior official from the PSNIs Organised Crime Branch raised concerns that the police service no longer has the resources to tackle the rise in organised criminal activity.
In this session, the Committee will be questioning the Chief Constable of the Northern Ireland Police Service about how and why Organised Crime Gangs have been allowed to operate productively in Northern Ireland for so long, and the role technology, such as the dark web, may play in their success.