PREMIUM PROJECT ALERT: HELP THE DUTCH POLICE FIGHT ONLINE CRIME!

Are you ready to tackle one of the most urgent challenges in law enforcement?

Because of the fact that we all started using digital technology on a daily basis in our work and private domain, there also has been a major shift to digitized crime and cybercrime methods. The topic of ‘Online Crime’ and the way we need to increase our police investigations and interventions on this topic also means we need to establish better cooperation between public and private stakeholders. This is currently one of the most challenging topics for the Dutch National Police, so also for Politie Limburg!

The problem is that our Limburg Police unit is currently mostly set up to prevent and investigate crime from a local, community policing perspective. When it comes to cybercrime and digital crime, the victims could be Limburg citizens, but that does not have to always be the case. Also, these perpetrators may come from another part in the Netherlands or even operate from abroad. This often makes investigations complicated and time consuming. It also highly reduces the chance of being caught. We as Limburg Police want to find a method by which we can track down more suspects of digital crime in Limburg (and the Euregion).

Our vision is:

The influx of reports of online crime is increasing, meaning our efforts as police officers to address these ever-changing forms of crime must also increase.

• We are committed to a meaningful intake process and effective follow-up for the victim, the suspect, and society.
• We select and weigh cases based on context and impact, applying the selectivity and opportunity framework. For each case, we explain why we have chosen a particular approach or resolution (preventive, disruptive and repressive, criminal, or alternative).
• We share our insights with external public and private partners, enabling timely intervention in prevention and the creation of barriers.
• We recognize that when it comes to online crime, the physical location of the suspect and/or victims is not clear at the start of an investigation. Therefore, we address this issue on a national scale, and this importance is given the same weight as for Limburg (local) cases.
• This vision must be known and supported by all colleagues working within the Limburg unit.

But the question now is how we can we put this vision into action? And what can we learn from the way other law enforcement agencies are tackling the same issues?

The Limburg Police Unit is therefore calling on a team of PREMIUM students to rethink how we investigate and prevent digital crime across borders.
Your mission? Explore global best practices, map out smarter strategies, and help shape the future of digital transformation and the fight against online crime.

The aim of this project is:

• to learn from other law enforcement agencies’ best practices worldwide;
• to learn especially from Belgium and Germany as “neighbors” and look for ways to cooperate in linking cases;
• to establish a long term cooperation with the University of Maastricht on the topic of online crime, to which end this PREMIUM team could help us with mapping out the possibilities for this. Who is already working within the University on the topic of online crime and digital transformation? What are their insights?

We are currently investigating what way is best to “reorganise” our internal organisation to give more and better attention to digital crime cases. The input of this project can help us with valuable insights. We can directly use the insights given by the PREMIUM team in the way we want to tackle the problem of fighting online crime!