The Operational and Analysis Centre (OAC) provides EU Member States, Europol’s associated partners and internal stakeholders with a set of cross-cutting services and capabilities. The centre supports police investigations with the sharing of information, including a number of operational and strategic functions.
The OAC was established as a result of the reorganisation of the Operations Directorate in June 2020. The new structure for the OAC involved concentrating the more operational horizontal functions in the Operational Centre and the more analytical and strategic coordination functions in the new Analysis and Strategic Coordination Unit.
The Operational Centre is the gateway of all information and intelligence channelled through Europol, both with Member States and third parties. It ensures the continuous exchange of information, and acts as quality controller and guardian of the data that is both received and sent, including travel intelligence. It also provides a first-level response to law enforcement and initiates relevant emergency protocols on a 24/7 basis.
Key objectives
The Operational Centre focuses on:
- Enhancing the exchange of all types of information with Europol’s stakeholders;
- Strengthening its role as the single point of contact for information sharing within the law enforcement community as well as the European Union;
- Being the key stakeholder of the operational implementation of the EU Interoperability Project;
- Supporting Europol’s Analysis Projects, Member States and Third Parties in combating serious and organised crime and terrorism by processing, cross-checking and providing analytical reports, paying special attention to the quality-related indicators of the provided products.
The Analysis and Strategic Coordination Unit:
- Oversees and articulates requirements for effective information and data information analysis;
- Acts as a knowledge broker and expertise centre for criminal analysis;
- Provides a forum for analysts to share expertise and knowledge;
- Ensures the maintenance of the highest quality of standards in the delivery of Europol's analytical support to the Member States and Third Parties;
- Supports stakeholders’ EMPACT activities and national Liaison Bureaux at Europol headquarters.
Operational highlights
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Europol supported the World Youth Day 2023, an event organised by the Catholic Church which saw 1.5 million young people convene in Lisbon, Portugal, between 1 and 6 August 2023. Given that a public event of this scale always attracts a considerable number of pickpockets, the Portuguese authorities organised an operational action dedicated to pickpocketing. To help keep the pilgrims safe, an expert from Europol’s Analysis Project FURTUM was deployed to the coordination centre, alongside an analyst from the OAC and nine other investigators from Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic. As a result of this coordinated effort, 8 pickpockets were arrested red-handed at the event, and an additional 22 suspects identified.
- Europol and the OAC hosted an operational centre to support safety and security during the UEFA EURO 2020 football championship. Coordinated by the Dutch Police, the International Police Cooperation Centre (IPCC) of the National Football Contact Points served as a central information hub for more than 40 liaison officers from national law enforcement authorities from the 21 participating and hosting countries. This special operational centre was created to enable swift cooperation and provide the necessary operational and analytical support for a safe and secure championship, targeting threats such as cybercrime, terrorism, match-fixing, trafficking counterfeit goods including fake COVID-19 certificates, and other intellectual property crimes.
- The OAC successfully facilitated the EU Most Wanted media campaign and hosted the website, where members of the public can make anonymous tips about fugitives. There have been 119 arrests since the launch of this campaign in January 2016.
- The opening of the Europol SIRENE office in March 2021 was a major highlight for the OAC. SIRENE is part of the Schengen Information System (SIS), the most widely used and largest information sharing system for security and border management in Europe. Specialised national SIRENE offices are located in each Member State and serve as single points of contact for the exchange of supplementary information and coordination of activities related to SIS alerts.
Key outputs
- The OAC published SOCTA 2021, along with 105 other reports, including intelligence notifications, early warning notifications, analytical briefs, threat assessments and joint analytical reports;
- The centre produced 7 545 operational reports in 2021.
Structure
The Operational Centre is responsible for processing and analysing significant volumes of operational information and provides Member States and Third Parties with the relevant analytical products in a timely manner. It also supports large-scale operations and major international events, provides on-the-spot support and special tactics expertise and coordinates the deployments of Europol’s guest officers.
As part of the implementation of the new Europol Strategy 2020+, Europol created the Analysis and Strategic Coordination Unit, which focuses on enhancing the coordination of cross-departmental aspects of analytical work, such as analysis training, analysis standards and quality control, data analysis support and analysis processes. It also coordinates a number of other responsibilities such as EMPACT support activities and Europol Liaison Officers, while providing support to Member States and Third Party Liaison Bureaux, as well as Europol’s other operational and strategic stakeholders.
Working together
The OAC provides a wide spectrum of support to all the Liaison Bureaux of EU Member States that are represented at Europol, as well as those of non-EU countries. It also liaises at an operational and strategic level with other stakeholders, regional organisations and initiatives, partner authorities, other EU agencies such as Eurojust, and other collaboration platforms.
In addition, the OAC facilitates the participation in Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) and raises awareness around related activities. Furthermore, it develops evaluations on the implementation of the Schengen Acquis in the field of police cooperation and supports several regional initiatives.
The OAC also contributes to the Eastern Partnership project. While leading this project, Europol and the OAC contribute to reducing crime and making the Eastern Partnership region safer for its citizens. The project improves operational cooperation with and between the partner countries and EU Member States. The project also aims to strengthen cooperation with the EU agencies active in the field, as part of the EU policy targeting organised and serious international crime (EMPACT).