The Cross Channel Intelligence Community (CCIC), is a regional alliance between

law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

operating in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

Coast/North Sea geographic area. The CCIC consists of representatives from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and operates on a regional basis to deal with lower level criminality. It runs in tandem to the work of

Europol Europol, officially the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU). Established in 1998, it is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and serves as the central hub for coordinating c ...

, the European Union's Criminal Intelligence Agency, which has an international rather than regional focus.

History

CCIC was established in 1968 to aid cross-border police co-operation, and to support police forces in the area to tackle the activities of the criminal minority who exploit the freedom of movement across EU frontiers to engage in criminal activity and conceal their proceeds of crime. In 1985 there were approximately 14,000 passengers travelling through the Port of

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

. In 2007 passenger numbers reached a record high of just over 14 million, thereby increasing the importance of the role of the CCIC.

Membership

United Kingdom

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

Serious Organised Crime Agency The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) was a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom which existed from 1 April 2006 until 7 October 2013. SOCA was a national law enforcement agency with Home Office sponsorship, e ...

Essex Police Essex Police is a territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Essex, in the East of England. Essex Police is responsible for a population of over 1.8 million people and an area of . The chief constable is Ben-Julian Harring ...

Kent Police Kent Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the and approximately 1.8 million inhabitants of Kent, a county in South East England. History On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong 'Kent County Constabulary' was formed under C ...

France

National Gendarmerie The National Gendarmerie ( ) is one of two national law enforcement forces of France, along with the National Police (France), National Police. The Gendarmerie is a branch of the French Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Minister ...

* National Police

Belgium

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

Netherlands

* Rotterdam-Rijnmond regional police

Structure

An annual conference enables representatives of member forces to share information, best practice and decide on the community's strategic objectives for the coming year. An Executive Board of eight senior police officers from the four member countries meets quarterly. Six working groups regularly report to the board. The current chair is Frank Goegebuer from the Belgian Federal Police - his chairmanship will run until mid-2012.

Functions

By sharing intelligence and providing key contacts, the CCIC can actively support operational activity in relation to

people trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

supply of illegal drugs,

illegal immigration Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

and cross-border criminality as it relates to passenger and

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

transport. Strategic objectives for 2011 include: *promoting trans-frontier co-operation *contributing to reducing crime and criminality across borders *protecting the public from harm by sharing best practice *increasing communication across member forces

2012 Olympic Games

The CCIC has a central role to play in the co-ordination of member law enforcement agencies in relation to security for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

particularly as national teams will travel to London to compete from the European mainland and ports in Kent (namely the Channel ports and the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

itself) are expected to reach their capacity of 110,000 people daily. The CCIC has set up an Olympic Games sub-group that is working with the French, Belgians and Dutch to make sure that there is coordinated approach to policing during the course of the Games.