Responding to media coverage around the 2nd annual report of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Ian Johnston, ACPO lead on crime and Chief Constable of British Transport Police said:

“Nationally, the public should be reassured that police forces are taking the fight against organised crime directly to the gangs responsible for it. Numerous successful proactive operations are mounted, with millions of pounds of assets seized and criminals arrested daily.

“While SOCA is still only two years old, it is working hard to tackle the greatest problems with new techniques. Success does not come easily but we are seeing knowledge shared between the agency and police forces and as a result, collectively we know much more about the nature and depth of organised crime. SOCA has also hugely enhanced some of the national services it inherited, such as the Anti-kidnap and Extortion Unit, the national FIU and SARS database.

“Tackling the networks behind organised crime is extremely complex and cannot be carried out by the police alone. It requires an effective skilled resource at a national and international level – and SOCA is best positioned to provide this.

“We are looking more and more at how to align the work of forces with SOCA for our mutual benefit. The Regional Intelligence Units (RIU) partnership work - building a comprehensive threat assessment of organised criminal networks in the UK - is a great example of how this is already working well and is enabling proper intelligence sharing at a local, national and international level.”