COVID-19 chiefs of police working group meets to talk pandemic and fighting crime threats

On Friday 12 February, Europol’s Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle welcomed Vittorio Rizzi, Deputy Director-General of Police and Director of the Criminal Police in Italy, to Europol’s headquarters. Together they chaired the fourth Working Group on COVID-19 Crime Threats and Law Enforcement Responses.

As the pandemic has changed the landscape of crime, law enforcement has had to adapt their approaches to the accelerated shifts in criminal modi operandi and market focus. The COVID-19 chiefs of police working group is an important initiative for law enforcement agencies to work together in monitoring the situation and coordinating the appropriate responses.

European chiefs of police from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and INTERPOL joined the virtual meeting to discuss the latest developments in criminality related to COVID-19 and the priorities of the working group.

Some of the priority areas discussed:

Headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands, Europol supports the 27 EU Member States in their fight against terrorism, cybercrime and other serious and organised forms of crime. We also work with many non-EU partner states and international organisations. From its various threat assessments to its intelligence-gathering and operational activities, Europol has the tools and resources it needs to do its part in making Europe safer. In 2019, Europol supported 1 874 international operations.

Europol early warning notification: The illicit sales of false negative covid-19 test certificates (02/02/2021)

Europol early warning notification: Vaccine-related crime during the covid-19 pandemic (04/12/2020)

Europol report: How COVID-19-related crime infected Europe during 2020. (12/11/2020)