Wednesday, November 04, 2020
Can police rescue law enforcement from a no deal Brexit?
I wrote over a month ago of warnings by a former EU security commissioner that British intelligence about terrorists and other serious criminals would have to be deleted from EU systems if the Brexit trade negotiations were to collapse. Now the Independent reports that police are scrambling to save the vital details of suspected criminals and missing people in case a database is “switched off” by a no-deal Brexit.
The paper says that thousands of names are being hurriedly “double keyed” into the Interpol system – amid fears the UK will lose all access to the Schengen Information System (SIS II), in just eight weeks’ time:
Richard Martin, the deputy assistant commissioner at the Met in charge of Brexit preparations, warned of the “massive impact” on policing of a no-deal.
And, on SIS II, he revealed: “We are either not in it not in it, for want of a better word –there is no sort of halfway house.
“We're putting the most important alerts that we have on SIS also onto the Interpol system, so that – if it is literally switched off at 2300 hours on the 31st – then policing will still have access to those alerts that we consider to be the most important,” he told a parliamentary inquiry.
Lord Ricketts, a former government national security adviser, said: “If the screens go completely dark on SIS II, because we are no longer a member of the EU or Schengen, that would be quite serious for UK policing.”
They add that Boris Johnson is facing growing criticism for sidelining the need for a security deal, in the focus on trying to rescue a trade agreement before the end of the transition period, while ministers admitted last year that Britons would be less safe if the UK crashed out without a deal. It is worth noting that membership of Europol and the European Arrest Warrant will be lost even with an agreement.
The UK has alone has placed more than 4 million alerts on SIS II and forces used it a staggering 603 million times last year, so it is clear that Brexit is going to make tbe country less secure and the job of law enforcement agencies even more difficult.
The paper says that thousands of names are being hurriedly “double keyed” into the Interpol system – amid fears the UK will lose all access to the Schengen Information System (SIS II), in just eight weeks’ time:
Richard Martin, the deputy assistant commissioner at the Met in charge of Brexit preparations, warned of the “massive impact” on policing of a no-deal.
And, on SIS II, he revealed: “We are either not in it not in it, for want of a better word –there is no sort of halfway house.
“We're putting the most important alerts that we have on SIS also onto the Interpol system, so that – if it is literally switched off at 2300 hours on the 31st – then policing will still have access to those alerts that we consider to be the most important,” he told a parliamentary inquiry.
Lord Ricketts, a former government national security adviser, said: “If the screens go completely dark on SIS II, because we are no longer a member of the EU or Schengen, that would be quite serious for UK policing.”
They add that Boris Johnson is facing growing criticism for sidelining the need for a security deal, in the focus on trying to rescue a trade agreement before the end of the transition period, while ministers admitted last year that Britons would be less safe if the UK crashed out without a deal. It is worth noting that membership of Europol and the European Arrest Warrant will be lost even with an agreement.
The UK has alone has placed more than 4 million alerts on SIS II and forces used it a staggering 603 million times last year, so it is clear that Brexit is going to make tbe country less secure and the job of law enforcement agencies even more difficult.
