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Judge criticises National Crime Agency over collapse of fraud trial

The National Crime Agency has been labelled “incompetent” by an Old Bailey judge after a series of blunders led to the collapse of a £5m trial.

The judge Wendy Joseph QC discharged the jury from finding verdicts against the seven defendants, saying the prosecution case demonstrated mistakes that were “beyond negligence”.

Evidence had gone missing, was misleading or had not been investigated properly in the complex fraud inquiry, she said. The court heard how detectives did not have the software to grab pictures from CCTV and were reduced to taking photos on their phones.

The criticism comes as the government considers stripping the Metropolitan police of its national lead in counter-terrorism and handing it to the agency, which was set up last year.

Shane Collery, prosecuting, was forced to offer no evidence against the accused men, who grinned broadly as the decision was announced.

Joseph told jurors: “It must be very apparent to you that things have gone terribly wrong in this case. The prosecutor accepts he cannot continue with the case in front of you. Everyone accepts that with the state of the evidence as it is – half investigated, material missing, material misleading – it is simply impossible to go on with you.

“Please don’t leave the building thinking this is how cases are normally conducted,” she said.

The investigation by the agency centred on a multimillion-pound fraud against a series of companies and institutions including Chester zoo, Care UK, AB InBev and South Essex College. At the opening of the trial it was claimed that the extent of the fraud totalled £37m.

Between April 2013 and March 2014, payments to building contractors were intercepted and quickly dispersed through hundreds of bank accounts, the court heard. But after five days of evidence it emerged that there were problems with the timeline prepared by the agency, which was the basis of the crown’s case.

Joseph said: “On the face of it they were just little things, mistakes in mathematics, typographical errors that should have been very easily sorted out. But as each problem has been sorted out another has emerged and each time problems have been worse and worse. The picture that emerged was the documentation that we call the timeline is in many ways wholly misleading.”

Further investigation over the past three weeks while the jury did not sit revealed that the total laundered was closer to £40m. It emerged that more than 200 bank accounts involved in the transfer of payments had not been investigated.

“The likelihood is that either it will strengthen the crown’s case or it will go to support the defendants’ explanation. None of this has even been looked at. It has all just been missed,” Joseph said.

Several exhibits had not been examined by detectives, and a mistaken identification of a suspect during agency surveillance had not been disclosed to the defence, the court heard.

The judge made a series of criticisms of the NCA in her ruling dismissing the prosecution application for an adjournment. “They had no software for the capture of CCTV photographs and tried to do it by taking stills on their mobile phones. They had no software allowing them to cut and past pdfs into the document and again tried to take photos. They could not access their own electronically served case papers and they had no paginated statements or exhibits. The case team struggled on, producing useless material,” she said.

Less than a month before the start of the trial the agency decided to pay for an outside contractor to do the work, the court heard, but the analyst was “not competent for the task”, the judge said.

The NCA team was also accused of failures to obtain evidence and to disclose evidence to the defence. Joseph said: “Either because of the size of the case or because of financial constraints the NCA’s case team chose to ignore various routes of investigation including bank accounts. They applied a forensic strategy outside that applied by the Crown Prosecution Service without telling the CPS or counsel. The NCA case team failed to apply the disclosure protocol which they were required to follow.”

The judge criticised the CPS team for “multiple and profound’ failures and added: “The crown has been the author of the misfortune which has overtaken it. A number of failures go beyond misfortune and even beyond negligence.”

Joseph concluded: “I have no doubt that the NCA has failed the public interest in this case. There can be no excuse or justification for the combination of multiple failures that have occurred or the very late stage they have occurred. There can be no justification for what these defendants and the jury has had to endure over the past month nor the public expense that has been incurred as one wheel after another has fallen off the prosecution’s train before it has finally rolled to a standstill.”

The NCA, often described as Britain’s FBI, is believed to be undertaking an internal inquiry as to how the case fell apart. A spokesperson said: “The NCA and CPS will reflect on the implications of the judge’s ruling and consider what could have been done differently.”

Six men and one woman from Enfield, north London, Norbury, south-west London and Clapton, east London, all denied a single charge of becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement between 29 April 2013 and 11 March 2014.

Jurors heard that victims of the scam included Chester zoo, which lost £1.26m. South Essex College lost £1.4m, North Herts College lost £424,000, the Budweiser brewer AB InBev lost £511,000, and the healthcare provider Care UK lost £1.43m.

• UK criminal justice
• Crown Prosecution Service
• NCA (National Crime Agency)

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Case Study • Digital Training

National crime agency.

Delivering a bespoke training course in statistical modelling and machine learning to analysts from the National Crime Agency.

Case Study Summary

The challenge.

Upskill junior analysts in advanced computing and statistical topics with law enforcement-related case studies.

What We Did

We designed and delivered a bespoke classroom-based training course in statistical modelling and machine learning.

Key Outcomes

Analysts equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills to utilise data in order to combat serious organised crime.

Introduction

The National Crime Agency (NCA) leads the UK's fight against serious and organised crime, protecting the public by disrupting and bringing to justice those serious and organised criminals who pose the highest risk to the UK. NCA officers and analysts work at the forefront of law enforcement, working to build an extensive intelligence picture of all serious and organised crime threats, and to develop and deliver specialist capabilities on behalf of law enforcement and other partners.

As serious and organised crime evolves, so too do the skills and capabilities that law enforcement need to investigate and disrupt the most dangerous and technologically sophisticated offenders. To maintain its proactive edge, the National Crime Agency must effectively harness and utilise emerging technologies and the latest research in order to deliver and maintain innovative and world-leading specialist capabilities in intelligence collection and real-time data analysis, achieved in large part through the effective training of the next generation of NCA officers and analysts.

We designed and delivered a bespoke classroom-based, instructor-led and hands-on training course in statistical modelling and machine learning with relevant case studies and exercises to over 20 NCA officers and analysts, covering the following applied modules:

• Introduction to Python and R
• Statistical Modelling and Machine Learning
• Real-time Distributed Data Engineering

Our training solutions, customised with case studies and exercises directly related to the real-time modelling and analysis of serious organised crime in order to cater for the specific requirements of the trainees, enabled the next generation of NCA officers and analysts to harness emerging technologies to deliver new and innovative data-driven specialist capabilities to combat serious organised crime and to protect the public in both the UK and internationally.

Case Studies

National highways.

Building a map of connected knowledge assets, data systems and datasets at National Highways as part of a common data model.

Jillur Quddus

Joint biosecurity centre.

Modelling the transmission of COVID-19 and simulating the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs).

Delivering a bespoke training course in statistical modelling and machine learning to analysts from the NCA.

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Case study: How the National Crime Agency looks to squash the cybercriminals at source

About the Author

Ben Russell, head of cyber threat response at the National Crime Agency (NCA), wants to get one thing clear. “We’re not a regulator – we’re not here to dish out fines,” he says. “We’re here to support businesses, investigate the criminals and try and catch people in order to help.”

The agency is not here to judge, or enforce anything in particular, but to help businesses if they have fallen victim to a cyberattack or data breach. Make no mistake about it either – it’s a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if.’

As a result, Russell wants to make businesses feel more comfortable in confiding to the NCA when things have gone wrong. “There are a range of reasons why businesses are nervous,” he explains. “Sometimes they don’t want the regulators to be informed, sometimes I don’t think they want breaches to become public, sometimes I think they’re just getting incomplete legal advice.

“In most circumstances we believe that working with us is the right thing to do,” Russell adds. “It actually helps businesses. We don’t go around shouting what’s been happening unless there’s a massive overwhelming public interest. We are very comfortable dealing with sensitive information so we understand that businesses are concerned about their security – and we’re here to help.”

One example of a story which naturally had overwhelming public interest was the WannaCry attack which crippled the NHS in 2017. According to a report from the Department of Health in October, it cost the health service £92 million.

It proves an interesting example of how the NCA solves the most challenging problems and collaborate with other bodies. The NCA, in Russell’s words, aims to ‘find out who did it’, while the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) focuses on ‘how it was done.’

“The thing about WannaCry was I think it was the first time we’d dealt with a cyberattack that had really significant consequences beyond the cyber realm,” explains Russell. “NHS England, NHS hospitals up and down the country were working really closely with the NCSC, and what we were able to do, due to the national nature of the incident, was deploying police officers to hospitals and NHS sites across the country.

“The incident showed that it was a complex and challenging attack, but it showed what you’ve got in the UK system – this whole government response where we’re deploying officers from the intelligence agencies and policing side by side,” Russell adds. “That’s a really novel, positive and exciting approach I think.”

This is not to say that the NCA does not look elsewhere for inspiration, however. In the US, for instance, the agency works with the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance (NCTFA), based in Pittsburgh. “The US is fantastic,” says Russell. “What I think is so fantastic about the [NCTFA] model is it’s industry-led. It’s about the sector working with academia, the government, ourselves, the FBI and others, but it’s come from industry themselves, recognising the importance of sharing information.

“People like me can bang on about sharing information and how important it is to do that, but actually when businesses recognise about how important that is themselves and then start doing it and invite us along, I think that’s always the best model.”

Increasingly, organisations are realising the need for disaster recovery and incident prevention alongside the good security hygiene already drummed into them – and while there is plenty of good work taking place, the journey is a never-ending one. “When I started out working on cybercrime the adversaries were focusing very much on trying to infiltrate networks and hide in the background, and take people’s card information,” says Russell. “Now it’s so much more in your face – so much is quite confrontational, ransomware, extortion, and so much more really nasty stuff.

“It’s about identifying when it’s happened as early as possible and making sure you know how to respond,” Russell adds. “How are you backing things up in the right way? Do you have well worked systems and processes in place for incident response? Do you have protocols? Who do you need to inform? What are you telling the public, your customers, the board?

“People have started to understand that they need to practice their incident response.”

Ben Russell is speaking at the Cyber Security & Cloud Expo Global in London on April 25-26. To find out more about his session, visit here.

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NCA: Reaching Investigators Through Targeted Recruitment Marketing

The National Crime Agency (NCA) turned to PeopleScout for a recruitment marketing campaign to help them stand out in their search for crime fighting investigators.

The National Crime Agency is responsible for leading the UK’s fight to cut serious and organized crime. The agency’s focus is on the big threats—targeting and pursuing serious and organized crime and criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK. The work is hugely complex, high-level and large scale. Officers operate at the forefront of law enforcement, building intelligence, pursuing the most serious and dangerous offenders and developing and delivering specialist capabilities for partner organizations.

It could have been an impressive proposition for the 1,500 investigators and other professionals the NCA wanted to recruit. But the NCA was competing with MI5, MI6, GCHQ and police forces for this talent. The intelligence organizations could be considered “sexier” brands. The police forces are better known and understood.

The NCA had been flying under the radar and needed to arrive on the scene with a bang. They turned to PeopleScout for a confident, attention-grabbing campaign to put their employer brand front-of-mind for their target audience.

Key Research

We conducted wide-ranging qualitative interviews and focus groups with key people across the agency in order to really get under the skin of the human experience of working there.

The key insights were:

• When NCA investigators succeed the impact is huge and far-reaching. The criminal activity they stop covers everything from child sexual abuse to illegal firearms trafficking, cyber crime, kidnapping and extortion. The police, by contrast, have to deal with everything from shoplifting upwards.
• A lot of the criminals the NCA targets feel they are untouchable. It’s very exciting to prove they are not.
• The work is exciting, and we shouldn’t underplay that.
• Investigators are often serving police officers or have strong links to policing. They rarely engage with usual recruitment channels, so we needed to think differently.
• The agency saw location as key—they were keen to recruit candidates close to the locations of their regional offices.

The Core Message

To work in crowded streets and packed transit stations, our campaign needed to have immediate visual impact. The NCA hunts the big fish of the criminal world. So, we chose the shark as a perfect visual metaphor to illustrate the level of criminality the agency handles; it’s the ultimate hidden predator with a fin that creates an emotional reaction.

Our visuals show a huge shark fin bursting through the ground, towering over well-known landmarks and wreaking havoc in recognizable, urban UK locations in London and Manchester. Each visual represented the scale of damage caused by high-level crime, while storm clouds provided a suitable dark and menacing backdrop. These visuals were complemented with a simple message: No predator too big .

Media Strategy

We focused the recruitment campaign on outdoor media to reach the widest possible audience in our target areas. We identified outdoor locations that serve police officers on their daily commute—for example, Manchester Piccadilly station and the Metro line to Greater Manchester Police HQ—in addition to specialist online media.

The Results

We rolled out the campaign for digital, data, tech and specialist firearms audiences. The results were very impressive:

29,684 candidates to the NCA landing page. 15,703 applications across 143 roles. 2,228 candidates invited to interview. 225 job offers. 825 held in talent pool awaiting job offers.

This was a hugely successful campaign which drove a large number of applications. We exceeded NCA’s expectations, raised awareness of the NCA as an alternative employer for serving police officers and improved perceptions of the NCA as an employer with a unique offering.

AT A GLANCE

• COMPANY : National Crime Agency (NCA)
• PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS : Talent Advisory
• LOCATIONS : Regional offices in the UK’s urban centers
• About NCA : The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the UK focused on fighting organized crime, trafficking, cybercrime and fraud.

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How Predictive Policing Can Criminalize Kids’ Online Searches

Using a computer to predict criminal behavior sounds like the stuff of science fiction. Yet police are already using algorithmic technology to identify and deter the offenders of tomorrow.

To date, there has been no systematic review of these efforts to forecast crime in the UK. A recent report has provided valuable insight into how UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is adopting these technologies in a cybercrime context, with some interesting case study examples.

Through the Cyber Choices program , the NCA identifies “at-risk” young people, based on online activity which indicates a potential interest in cybercrime forums or the purchase of cybercrime tools. Using a set of risk characteristics, the NCA then targets these young people before they engage in serious illegal activity.

Once identified, NCA officers visit these young people to discuss their behavior with them and with their parents.

Data gleaned from this program is also utilized in a complementary “ influencer operations” project, in which young people, some as young as 14, who have googled cybercrime services receive targeted Google advertisements informing them that these services are illegal and that they face NCA action if they purchase them.

The NCA also linked these advertisements to hashtags for major gaming conventions.

Data-Driven Policing in the UK

  This is not the first time UK law enforcement agencies have used data-driven technology to forecast crime involving young people. Under the Gang Violence Matrix, a system maintained by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) that ranks individuals on a scale using data based on arrests, convictions and intelligence, an individual is added to the list as a gang “nominal” if he or she meets the threshold for inclusion.

The system identifies victims as well as perpetrators of gang-related crime, with the aim of ensuring they receive the support to prevent further victimization, and to divert them from gang activity.

As of July 2016, 15 percent of those on the Matrix were minors, the youngest being just 12 years old.

Proponents argue these tools help reduce crime and allow police to target resources to the benefit of the wider community. Concerns around the use of this technology center on its long-term consequences, including the effect of contact with law enforcement authorities at such a young age, with the potential risk of stigmatization by peers, educational establishments and future employers were they to learn of it.

  When Things Go Wrong

  When things go wrong, the consequences can be serious.

In 2017, a document with unredacted personal data called ‘Newham Gang Matrix 10th January 2017’ was leaked, and subsequently found to be circulating via Snapchat. The document contained the details of individuals on the Matrix. It had been disclosed by Newham Council, which was fined £145,000 (about US $197,300 at current exchange rates) for the data breach by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The ICO also issued the MPS with an Enforcement Notice . Of serious concern to the ICO was how victims of gang-related crime were presumed to have gang associations themselves. The MPS had no system for accurately noting that the victim had been included in the Matrix solely or primarily because of their victim status.

Another major concern was how social media intelligence was being used by police officers, including intelligence derived from posting or commenting on YouTube videos. There was a failure on the part of the MPS when it came to assessing the relevance of this data.

The ICO said these breaches of data protection law had the “ potential to cause damage and distress to the disproportionate number of young, black men on the Matrix.”

  At the time, over 100 children under the age of 16 had been profiled. The ICO required 16 actions to be taken by the MPS, including introducing a system for distinguishing victims of gang-related violence, and developing guidance on social media use as an intelligence source. A 2019 freedom of information request revealed that children as young as 13 were still listed on the Matrix. 611 of those listed were 18 or under, making up just under 20 percent of the total

The application of predictive policing has yet to be challenged in the UK Courts.

In 2020, the use of surveillance technology was considered by the UK Court of Appeal in a challenge to the use of live facial recognition technology by South Wales Police. In that case, the Court found that too much discretion had been left to individual officers. Predictive policing goes even further, with very significant potential intrusions on individual privacy rights.

These issues are currently under consideration by the UK House of Lords. In May 2021, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee in the British Parliament launched an inquiry into new technologies such as algorithmic policing and the application to them of the law.

There is no record of NCA involvement in the inquiry.

In July, members of West Midlands Police attended a closed session to demonstrate the National Data Analytics Solution, a tool being developed by a consortium of police agencies to create “ a new shared, central data and analytics capability.”

  This is said to be a true machine learning-based predictive tool, drawing on nearly 1,400 data indicators that could help predict crime. These indicators include previous crime records or association with criminals. The machine-learning component will use these indicators to predict which individuals may be on a trajectory of violence similar to that observed in past cases.

It is also using social network analysis to identify people who are at risk of becoming influencers of crime, a model that assesses the likelihood and risk of a particular individual becoming influential in co-offending.

A PowerPoint presentation delivered by West Midlands Police at the 2017 Excellence in Policing Conference indicates that the National Data Analytics Solution uses data from young people “up to 11” and “11 to 16” age groups, noting that “The younger you are when you commit a co-offending offence the more likely for you to go ahead to commit other crimes.”

A briefing note prepared by West Midlands Police Ethics Committee argues for the “social benefit of being able to identify the circumstances and reasons (particularly for young people) that lead individuals to commit their first violent offence ….”

  Future Risks

The development of predictive policing gives rise to complex and controversial issues. In its favor, it had the potential to protect the public and to divert potential offenders from a path that would, in all probability, lead to far harsher future involvement with the criminal justice system. In times of scarce resources, the saving to taxpayers will also prove attractive.

However, the risks of widespread adoption of such technology are concerning. They include the potential for algorithmic bias and error, and the stigmatization of young people who have committed no offense but who have merely exercised childlike curiosity.

Importantly, under Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child , adults are expected to consider the best interests of children when making choices that affect them. This is particularly important when children are still forming mental associations between their behavior, their environment and the consequences of their actions.

The trial and roll-out of such technology without proper scrutiny or public debate poses acute risks to public trust and jeopardizes the UK’s model of policing by consent.

The genie is almost certainly out of the bottle in terms of the development of such technology, but the adoption of policing methods borrowed from science fiction first requires extensive public debate and the formulation and enforcement of a strict legal framework if it is to be a success.

 Suzanne Gallagher  is a solicitor at BCL Solicitors LLP in London, where she specializes in corporate crime. Since qualifying in 2017, she has worked in a variety of regulatory and criminal investigations. She has developed expertise in surveillance, cybercrime, data protection and online harm.

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Career Insight: Jake, Legal Trainee, National Crime Agency

Jake provides an insight into his training contract within the National Crime Agency

Jake is a Trainee Solicitor in the National Crime Agency ( NCA ) . Here he discusses his experiences so far.

“ NCA Legal exists to assist our officers in detecting and tackling organised and serious crime. Typically, NCA recruits one or two legal trainees each year.

NCA ’s legal trainees are given early responsibility.

Working in the Data and Operations Team I am on the ‘front line’, which means that I receive phone calls about live operations and urgent needs. I have been involved in a Judicial Review, arranged my own sifts in respect of legal professional privilege and attended meetings as a representative of the team. I am trusted to organise my own calendar around the needs of the team and those cases and issues allocated to me.

Some days have involved organising meetings to discuss the Orders available against suspected offenders and others. They have also included drafting agreements between the NCA and other government bodies or external third parties.

My work is so varied that there is no average day. I can be discussing the impact of human rights issues in relation to a particular investigation one day. Then the requirements of disclosure on an internal policy the next.

You are supported every step of the way in the NCA . Not only do you have a supervisor who is there to help and guide you but you also work very closely with your team. Regularly you will voice your opinion on an issue another lawyer is facing and come to a solution together.

The team also make an effort to involve me as much as possible on areas I might not otherwise have chance to experience. Whether that be meetings on Home Office briefings or writing an urgent response to Parliament . As a result, no two days are the same and every day provides new challenges.”

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Karpichkov -v- The National Crime Agency

High Court King's Bench Division Media and Communications List Judgment

Claim Number: QB-2022-000433

In the High Court of Justice King’s Bench Division Media and Communications List

27 October 2023

Master McCloud

Mr Boris Karpichkov

The National Crime Agency

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National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X)

The National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) is an initiative to develop a statistical system of incident-based data, on crimes reported to law enforcement, to generate nationally representative estimates of the volume and characteristics of crimes. NCS-X data will capture the attributes and circumstances of criminal incidents at the national level, allowing for more detailed and transparent descriptions of victimization and offending that will improve the nation’s ability to monitor, respond to, and prevent crime.

NCS-X was implemented in two phases, (1) obtaining incident-based crime data by expanding coverage of the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) , and (2) developing statistical estimation procedures that provide a national picture of the details and context of crime.

As of January 1, 2021, the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program retired the Summary Reporting System (SRS), the system for collecting reported crime data from law enforcement that had been in place for more than 90 years. NIBRS is now the national standard by which law enforcement agencies submit crime data to the FBI.

For additional information on NIBRS, see the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data collection page.

NCS-X Phase 1: NIBRS Expansion, 2013-2021

Until January 1, 2021, the United States’ primary measure of crime known to law enforcement was monthly counts of ten offense categories—murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, human trafficking-involuntary servitude, and human trafficking-commercial sex acts—based on the most serious offense reported for each crime incident. NIBRS was implemented in the late 1980s to improve the overall quality of crime data collected by law enforcement by capturing details on each single crime incident—and on separate offenses within the same incident—including information on victims, known offenders, relationship between victims and offenders, arrestees, and property, weapons, and/or drugs involved in crimes.

When NCS-X was designed in 2010, only about 25% of the nation’s roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies contributed data to NIBRS. While the data collected through NIBRS was ideal for the NCS-X, agency participation rates did not meet minimum requirements for quantifying crime at the national-level. BJS determined it could produce national estimates of NIBRS data by enrolling a scientifically selected sample of 400 law enforcement agencies to submit data in addition to the agencies already participating in NIBRS.

In 2013, BJS and the FBI partnered on NCS-X and began working to expand NIBRS coverage through funding, training, and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies. The partnership leveraged the FBI’s existing NIBRS program infrastructure, allowing the two agencies to, (1) promote NIBRS data collection among the state Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) programs, and (2) recruit the 400 NCS-X law enforcement agencies and support their transition to NIBRS.

State-Level Expansion of NIBRS

NCS-X funding and assistance were provided to two types of state entities-- state UCR Programs and State Administering Agencies (SAA) . In order to expand NIBRS reporting nationally, the NCS-X worked with state UCR Programs to ensure they were “NIBRS certified,” meaning the program demonstrated it was capable of collecting and processing NIBRS-compliant data from state and local law enforcement agencies and could transmit those data to the FBI. State-level NCS-X funding served two general purposes, to (1) help state UCR Programs upgrade or procure NIBRS-compliant data repositories and other software, hardware, or equipment necessary for improved data automation and transmission, and (2) expand incident-based reporting within the state by partnering with SAAs to administer subawards to state and local agencies selected into the NCS-X sample of 400.

As of April, 2022, all state UCR Programs were certified by the FBI to collect and submit NIBRS data. As of February, 2022, 11,525 law enforcement agencies were reporting to NIBRS, comprising 61.2 percent of all crime-reporting law enforcement agencies covering 64.5 percent of the U.S. population.

Local Agency Recruitment and Transition to NIBRS

Members of the NCS-X Technical Assistance and Implementation Team (NCS-X Team) worked directly with NCS-X selected agencies to identify gaps in their ability to report incident-based data. As part of recruitment activities, the NCS-X Team conducted  Readiness Assessments  to identify transition needs and associated costs to successfully collect and report compliant incident-based data. Funding was provided to improve data automation and reporting, with most eligible agencies receiving funds to obtain a NIBRS-compliant records management system (RMS) or other software, hardware, or equipment necessary to report to NIBRS. The NCS-X Team regularly met with award recipients to offer project guidance and technical assistance.

NCS-X Phase 2: National Estimation, 2018-

The transition to NIBRS means that crime statistics generated by the FBI’s UCR Program will be based solely on data submitted to NIBRS. As of February 2022, 11,525 law enforcement agencies were reporting to NIBRS, comprising 61.2 percent of all crime-reporting law enforcement agencies covering 64.5 percent of the U.S. population. To calculate a national crime rate based on NIBRS data, BJS, in partnership with the FBI and with statistical and technical support from RTI International, established a new set of statistical procedures to estimate crime, based on data provided by NIBRS-contributing agencies.

The NIBRS Estimation Project page contains additional information about the collaboration between BJS and the FBI and links to resources about the project.

NCS-X Sample: 400 State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies

More than 18,000 law enforcement agencies collect and report crime data to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, either through the Summary Reporting System (SRS) or NIBRS. The NCS-X sample was drawn from law enforcement agencies that had reported crime data to the SRS in 2011. SRS data contributors were stratified into 11 strata or categories by agency type and total number of sworn personnel. 

All of the nation’s law enforcement agencies employing 750 or more sworn personnel that were not already reporting to NIBRS were included in the NCS-X sample. Agencies assigned to the remaining strata were selected at random, with varying probability, to ensure the number of agencies sampled within each stratum was proportional to the number of agencies in each stratum. 

• NCS-X Sample of 400 Law Enforcement Agencies

NCS-X Technical Assistance and Implementation Team

The NCS-X Team is led by BJS and supported by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Division (CJIS) , RTI International , the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) , the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics (SEARCH) , the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) , the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) , and the Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs (ASUCRP) .

The NCS-X Team assists participating agencies by coordinating information across state and local law enforcement agencies, state UCR Programs, the law enforcement technology industry, and other key stakeholders to provide guidance to transitioning agencies and promote efficient and economical practices.

The NCS-X Team also produced resource and other materials for state UCR Programs and for state and local law enforcement agencies, to support the expansion of NIBRS reporting.

Resources for State UCR Programs

Planning a statewide transition to incident-based reporting:

• State IBR Playbook: A Guide to Implementing a Statewide Incident-Based Crime Reporting System
• IBR Implementation Planning
• Estimating Costs for Transitioning to NIBRS: Guidance for State UCR Programs
• NIBRS Readiness Assessment Guide: Implementing an Incident-Based Crime Reporting System

NIBRS data assessment tools:

• NIBRS Precertification Tool : tests agency generated data files against NIBRS data edit and validation rules. The free software provides formatted output of errors, in order for agencies to correct their data submissions prior to testing for IBR certification.
• NIBRS to SRS Conversion Tool : allows agencies to compare incident-based crime data to historical summary data by exercising UCR Summary Reporting System (SRS) reporting rules to collapse NIBRS-compliant data.

Resources for Law Enforcement Agencies

Planning an agency transition to incident-based reporting:

• Local IBR Playbook: A Guide to Implementing an Incident-Based Reporting System
• Estimating Costs for Transitioning to NIBRS: Guidance for Local Law Enforcement Agencies
• NCS-X NIBRS Readiness Assessment for Agencies with a Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) RMS
• NCS-X NIBRS Readiness Assessment Form for Agencies with an In-House/Custom RMS
• Key Topics for Law Enforcement to Consider
• Model Statement of Work
• Customizable Power Point Presentation : Moving from Summary to Incident-Based Reporting

NCS-X Publications

• The Nation's Move to NIBRS: Formulating the Future of Crime Data in Policing - Workshop Proceedings (2021) .
• NIBRS Transition Summary: Montgomery County, MD, Police Department
• NIBRS Transition Summary: Fort Worth, TX, Police Department
• Will NIBRS Reporting Increase Crime Statistics? Tips for Responding to Questions (2020)
• Multiple Offense Incidents in the National Incident-Based Reporting System (2019)
• Tech Talk: Got NIBRS? Finding Efficiencies and Funding to Support Your Agency's Transition (2018)
• Research in Brief: Leveraging NIBRS to Better Understand Sexual Violence (2018)
• The Future of Crime Data: The Case for the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) as a Primary Data Source for Policy Evaluation and Crime Analysis (2017)

More Information on NCS-X and NIBRS

• FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS)  Division -  NIBRS program page
• International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) - National Crime Statistics Exchange program page
• Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) - Incident-Based Reporting Resource Center

What is Al-Qadir Trust case for which Imran Khan was arrested?

Legal experts say former prime minister’s arrest may violate recently amended laws.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arrested in connection with corruption involving the Al-Qadir University Trust, headed by the opposition leader and his wife Bushra Bibi, during a court appearance related to a separate case, in the capital Islamabad.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said in a statement on Tuesday that the former prime minister was arrested “for the crime of corruption” in the trust.

Keep reading

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Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan confirmed that Khan, the leader of the main opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was arrested in a case pursued by the anti-corruption body.

“Imran Khan did not appear despite the notices, NAB has arrested him for damaging the national treasury. No violence was done to them,” the interior minister said in a tweet .

PTI leaders have denied the charges levelled by the interior minister, saying Khan had not been issued any arrest warrant before Tuesday.

Akbar Nasir Khan, a top police official in Islamabad, told Al Jazeera that NAB had issued an arrest warrant against Khan on May 1 in relation to the case.

Khan has been slapped with more than 100 cases – including corruption, “terrorism” and even blasphemy – since he was removed from power last April through a parliamentary vote of no confidence.

The 70-year-old denies the charges as politically motivated. He has also maintained that political parties joined forces with the country’s powerful military to remove him from power. He even accused the United States of conspiring in his removal – a charge he has since walked back .

What is the Al-Qadir University Trust case about?

Khan was arrested for an offence related to the Al-Qadir University Trust case. Last June, the new coalition government alleged that Khan and his wife obtained land worth billions of rupees for their trust from Malik Riaz, a major property tycoon of Pakistan, to build an educational institute.

The NAB has alleged that Khan’s PTI government struck a deal with Riaz that caused a loss of more than $239m to the national exchequer, in a quid pro quid arrangement with the real estate businessman.

In December 2019, Riaz agreed to hand over assets, including properties worth $239m, to United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency in an investigation related to “dirty money”.

Khan and his government were not directly linked to the case.

‘Procedure not followed’

Lawyer Abuzar Salman Niazi told Al Jazeera Khan’s arrest seemed to be illegal, citing changes made to NAB laws last year.

According to the Lahore-based lawyer, under the new amendments, the NAB must issue multiple notices to the accused. And warrants can be issued only in case of repeated failure to cooperate and “willfully and intentionally” avoiding arrest.

“Earlier, the chairman of the NAB had unbridled powers in terms of issuing arrest warrants for any accused. However, after the change in law, this cannot happen any more,” Niazi said.

Imran Shafique, a former prosecutor of the NAB and a lawyer based in Islamabad, said that, while NAB has the right to arrest an accused in case of their repeated absence, the case to keep the former prime minister detained “looks weak”.

“The NAB says they have issued multiple notices which Khan did not pay heed to. But according to the revised amendment, the authority not only has to complete its inquiry first, but also share the report with the accused,” the lawyer told Al Jazeera.

“The new laws make it much easier for the accused to get bail, so it could perhaps help Imran Khan,” he added.

Lahore-based lawyer Asad Rahim Khan said that Khan’s arrest has little to do with the law and everything to do with fear and persecution.

“Following changes to the NAB law, and given Pakistan’s more general principles of bail, accused persons cannot be arrested unless they are refusing to join the investigation, or are tampering evidence, or are considered flight risks,” he told Al Jazeera.

But in a statement issued after the arrest of the former prime minister, the NAB said Khan did not give respond to summoning notices.

“His arrest has been made in accordance with the NAB ordinance and the law,” the statement said.

NCA: Reaching Investigators Through Targeted Recruitment Marketing

The National Crime Agency (NCA) turned to PeopleScout for a recruitment marketing campaign to help them stand out in their search for crime fighting investigators.

The National Crime Agency is responsible for leading the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime. The agency’s focus is on the big threats—targeting and pursuing serious and organised crime and criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK. The work is hugely complex, high-level and large scale. Officers operate at the forefront of law enforcement, building intelligence, pursuing the most serious and dangerous offenders and developing and delivering specialist capabilities for partner organisations.

It could have been an impressive proposition for the 1,500 investigators and other professionals the NCA wanted to recruit. But the NCA was competing with MI5, MI6, GCHQ and police forces for this talent. The intelligence organisations could be considered “sexier” brands. The police forces are better known and understood.

The NCA had been flying under the radar and needed to arrive on the scene with a bang. They turned to PeopleScout for a confident, attention-grabbing campaign to put their employer brand front-of-mind for their target audience.

Key Research

We conducted wide-ranging qualitative interviews and focus groups with key people across the agency in order to really get under the skin of the human experience of working there.

The key insights were:

• When NCA investigators succeed the impact is huge and far-reaching. The criminal activity they stop covers everything from child sexual abuse to illegal firearms trafficking, cyber crime, kidnapping and extortion. The police, by contrast, have to deal with everything from shoplifting upwards.
• A lot of the criminals the NCA targets feel they are untouchable. It’s very exciting to prove they are not.
• The work is exciting, and we shouldn’t underplay that.
• Investigators are often serving police officers or have strong links to policing. They rarely engage with usual recruitment channels, so we needed to think differently.
• The agency saw location as key—they were keen to recruit candidates close to the locations of their regional offices.

The Core Message

To work in crowded streets and packed transit stations, our campaign needed to have immediate visual impact. The NCA hunts the big fish of the criminal world. So, we chose the shark as a perfect visual metaphor to illustrate the level of criminality the agency handles; it’s the ultimate hidden predator with a fin that creates an emotional reaction.

Our visuals show a huge shark fin bursting through the ground, towering over well-known landmarks and wreaking havoc in recognisable, urban UK locations in London and Manchester. Each visual represented the scale of damage caused by high-level crime, while storm clouds provided a suitable dark and menacing backdrop. These visuals were complemented with a simple message: No predator too big .

Media Strategy

We focused the recruitment campaign on outdoor media to reach the widest possible audience in our target areas. We identified outdoor locations that serve police officers on their daily commute—for example, Manchester Piccadilly station and the Metro line to Greater Manchester Police HQ—in addition to specialist online media.

The Results

We rolled out the campaign for digital, data, tech and specialist firearms audiences. The results were very impressive:

29,684 candidates to the NCA landing page. 15,703 applications across 143 roles. 2,228 candidates invited to interview. 225 job offers. 825 held in talent pool awaiting job offers.

This was a hugely successful campaign which drove brand awareness and a large number of applications. We exceeded NCA’s expectations, raised awareness of the NCA as an alternative employer for serving police officers and improved perceptions of the NCA as an employer with a unique offering.

AT A GLANCE

• COMPANY : National Crime Agency (NCA)
• PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS : Talent Advisory
• LOCATIONS : Regional offices in the UK’s urban centres
• About NCA : The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the UK focused on fighting organised crime, trafficking, cybercrime and fraud.

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Chicago aldermen fighting gun violence deem ShotSpotter an ‘invaluable tool’ as council to consider bucking Mayor Johnson on the technology

C HICAGO — Despite Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to rid Chicago of ShotSpotter, nearly all aldermen representing the neighborhoods where people are most likely to be shot still want the controversial gunshot detection system to stay in their wards.

Fourteen aldermen in the 17 wards with the highest gunshot victimization rates told the Chicago Tribune they want to see the police response tool remain. Those aldermen — all representing South and West side wards — view the tool as a way to get first responders to gunshot victims faster, rather than the too-costly impetus for overpolicing it has been labeled by opponents.

The group of supporters forms the backbone of a push to take future control of the technology out of Johnson’s hands. An order up for a final vote Wednesday is designed to give the City Council power to determine ShotSpotter’s fate.

“If it can just do one thing good and save a life, it’s worth trying,” West Side Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, told the Tribune.

The effort to undercut Johnson’s campaign promise to cancel the ShotSpotter contract pits many regular allies against him. They tout support for the system from neighborhood police district commanders and stark fears about what happens in the absence of the tool that often gives officers their only notice of gunfire.

But despite their concerns, ShotSpotter proponents in neighborhoods hard hit by violence say they didn’t hear from the mayor’s administration before Johnson announced the city would cut off the technology starting in September.

“I’m not trying to throw him under the bus, but I just think they need to have this conversation with us, since we are out here, on what works and what doesn’t work for us,” Mitts said.

The legislation would require a full City Council vote to remove ShotSpotter from any ward, leading to speculation the measure would lead to ward-by-ward approval for the technology. Sponsor Ald. David Moore, 17th, clarified that he hopes the legislation allows ShotSpotter to remain throughout the city.

A Johnson spokesperson wrote in a statement Tuesday that public safety is a “citywide issue” overseen by the Police Department and mayor that “cannot be effectively managed on a ward-by-ward basis in a way that undercuts that authority.”

As the last-ditch effort to revive ShotSpotter works through City Hall, the aldermen holding out for a gunshot detection system say they still have not heard from the mayor. Administration officials have not reached out to Moore since the South Side alderman’s order breezed through the council’s Police and Fire Committee two weeks ago, he said.

The administration’s positions on ShotSpotter have taken Moore by surprise. “We shouldn’t be finding out about it in the press,” he said.

Johnson announced in February the city would stop using ShotSpotter in late September, nodding to studies questioning its effectiveness as a tool to catch criminals and curb crime alongside its annual price tag of around $10 million. The system uses acoustic sensors mounted on light poles concentrated overwhelmingly on the South and West sides to alert police about the location of suspected gunfire.

As a candidate, he pledged to terminate ShotSpotter, a target of activists that gained notoriety in 2021 after a gunshot alert from a street in Little Village sent responding police running after 13-year-old Adam Toledo. An officer fatally shot Toledo during the chase.

The September end date would give Chicago police time to adapt to the tool’s expiration over the summer, Johnson said. But speculation quickly emerged after the announcement that the company had not yet agreed to the extension, a possibility about which Johnson refused to directly answer questions. Days later, he announced there would be an additional two-month “transition period” before the technology goes offline in November.

The company that operates ShotSpotter, SoundThinking, and the technology’s council proponents quickly went to work trying to keep it in Chicago. Company lobbyists shared with aldermen multiple drafts of an order designed to allow ShotSpotter to remain, the Chicago Reader reported Friday. A SoundThinking spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday that the company is “committed to doing whatever we can to help the Chicago Police Department.”

Through early April, Moore’s ward had the city’s second-most shooting victimizations — instances in which a person was wounded or killed by gunfire. He said he thinks he has the votes to pass the order Wednesday, but expects Johnson allies to “defer and publish” it, a parliamentary maneuver to temporarily block a vote. Moore said he hopes some kind of gunshot detection system will continue to operate in Chicago, even if it is not the ShotSpotter system that came to the city in a 2012 pilot program.

Johnson initially strongly rejected the possibility of replacing ShotSpotter with a different gunshot detection tool, but later floated his openness to using the money the city spends on the technology for a system to more quickly dispatch ambulances instead of police. His administration has not shared any specific plans for ShotSpotter alternatives.

The decision has also put Johnson at odds with his police superintendent, Larry Snelling. Snelling publicly praised the tool shortly before Johnson announced it would be axed. The superintendent stuck to his support Friday while speaking next to Johnson at a news conference where he pledged to “work around” whatever the City Council determines.

“When it comes to ShotSpotter, I’ve seen our officers get to locations quickly and I’ve seen them save lives,” he said.

Johnson stuck to his criticism, calling the data on the technology “very clear.” The differences between Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods and other parts of the city is “gross inequity” created by decades of government disinvestment, and broad investment in them is the best tool to fight crime, he argued.

“The decision has been made,” he said. “Administrations of the past have not been as focused as I have been on getting to the root causes of violence.”

A series of studies, reports and lawsuits have built up and broken down the case against ShotSpotter.

Like Snelling, ShotSpotter’s proponents tout its potential to save lives by speeding up police responses. In the last three years, CPD officers responding to a ShotSpotter alert rendered lifesaving medical aid 430 times, according to the Police Department.

They also flag findings from a recent Justice Department study that the technology’s alerts bring police to crime scenes faster and keep them there longer. However, the same study determined the tool does not reduce gun violence or improve CPD’s clearance rate.

A recent CPD analysis found that the vast majority of ShotSpotter alerts in the Englewood and Gresham districts — 80% — did not have an accompanying 911 call from a citizen.

A working paper from Ph.D. candidates at the University of California at Santa Barbara found that the flood of ShotSpotter alerts in Chicago resulted in longer police response times — and thus, a decrease in arrests stemming from 911 calls. Attorneys from the MacArthur Justice Center, which is suing the city in a bid to end its use of ShotSpotter, highlight the finding as a way ShotSpotter makes police less efficient.

The criticism is echoed by Ald. William Hall, 6th, whose ward through early April is home to the most shooting victimizations throughout the city. He criticized ShotSpotter for not leading to more arrests and convictions.

“What we need is justice,” he said, adding that the money spent on ShotSpotter should instead be used to prevent violence. “What this mayor is trying to do, and which I solely support, is invest in things that prevent people from picking up a gun.”

“I would rather spend money on infrastructure, job creation, cultural infusion and young people, young people initiatives, than to spend millions of dollars on technology that does not deliver,” he said. “We don’t need to be alerted when people get shot. We need to do whatever we can to keep people from shooting.”

However, Hall’s backing of the mayor’s plan to oust ShotSpotter makes him a rare voice among peers leading violent wards.

The aldermen who want ShotSpotter to stay in their wards include Ald. Desmon Yancy, 5th; Ald. Greg Mitchell, 7th; Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th; Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th; Ald. Peter Chico, 10th; Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th; Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th; Ald. Ronnie Mosley, 21st, Ald. Monique Scott, 24th; Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th; and Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th.

That backing may not translate universally into support for Moore’s order, however. Several of the aldermen the Tribune spoke with who want to retain ShotSpotter said they are still considering how they will vote.

They view ShotSpotter as a necessity because many residents do not call police when they hear gunshots. Some speculated Chicagoans have grown reliant on ShotSpotter to alert police for them. Others said the lack of calls stems from a distrust in police or fears of retaliation for reporting crimes.

“I call 911, but 99% of the community doesn’t call,” Harris said. “While it is not the tool that’s going to keep you from getting shot, it is the tool that may save your life because the police are going to respond to that shot.”

The non-calls make ShotSpotter “an invaluable tool,” Mitchell said.

“I know firsthand: ShotSpotter alerted police, led them to situations that we would have found considerably later or might not at all,” he said. “For something that is beneficial to a lot of neighborhoods, I think a lot more conversations with us could have taken place.”

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, said she is on the fence regarding ShotSpotter. It feels like a “wasted contract” to her, she said, but she thinks she should defer to the police.

She would like to hold out for clearer information on ShotSpotter from the company and city, she said. Moore’s order would mandate the Police Department to collect a variety of data to clarify how well the technology works at prompting otherwise unlikely police responses, evidence recoveries and arrests.

“There has to be a full conversation about what is best. And I don’t know that ShotSpotter is,” Taylor said. “But what I’m disappointed in is that we didn’t have the conversation.”

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