The relevance of Strategic Intelligence Analysis and the SOCTA process
On June 30th, 2021 the project CSC WB and Europol organised the workshop “The Relevance of Strategic Intelligence Analysis and the SOCTA process”, aiming at strengthening the Western Balkans` capacity to conduct strategic and operational criminal analysis in an EU-harmonised manner.
The workshop aimed at highlighted insights and solutions that can facilitate the effective cooperation among the countries such as developing terms of reference, identifying customer requirements, knowing the strategic intelligence analysis process – what can assist the complex work done by the analysists, speed up the process and improve the quality of the assessments and reports.
In the context of the substantial role of the analysists in developing threat assessments, the participants had the opportunity to listen to the Europol analysts who presented the main concepts related to the strategic intelligence analysis, with a focus on the analysis and the SOCTA process, highlighting the relevance of the methodology.
The project CSC WB with its partner organisations such as Europol provides support to an effective cooperation between domestic law enforcement agencies and other relevant partners in the fight against serious and organised crime, by setting the scene for a methodological and process-oriented approach, but especially in prioritisation of serious and organised crime threads by the decision-makers, which is of high relevance for further actions in combatting serious and organised crime. The project is supporting the coordination, cooperation, networking and sharing of best practices on a common threat basis within the Western Balkans and with the EU, by supporting relevant law enforcement specialists of police departments in conducting strategic and operational criminal analysis.
The project team with the beneficiary institutions has already triggered key steps in developing the Western Balkans SOCTA, where workshops like this one also contribute to reach a common understanding and clarification of processes and roles and strengthen the networking with and to other partners.
“The Western Balkans SOCTA will be the product of the analysis of law enforcement information on criminal activities and groups affecting the region. It will identify a number of key priorities and a related set of recommendations and operational actions based on an in-depth analysis and increased on the major threats faced by the Western Balkans”, as stressed by Ms Anna Marinelli, component leader of the project on behalf on the Italian Ministry of Interior.
The workshop flyer and the agenda provide further information about the workshop:
