Improving the safety and security of New Zealand
through inter-agency partnerships
Tasking Framework
(Organised Crime)
Contents
The process described in this paper is focused on the organised crime function of OFCANZ – on identification of, and agreement to, focus areas and targets that will lead to the bulk of OFCANZ organised crime response (ie, how OFCANZ is ‘tasked’).
For the purposes of this document the following terminology applies:
|
Term |
Meaning |
|
Strategic Intelligence |
Strategic Intelligence aims to provide insight or understanding, and makes a contribution to broad strategies, policies, and resources. It is directed to the achievement of long term organisational objectives. It is used to influence operations and planning at every level, long-term resource decisions, cross-cutting crime/crash prevention, legislative demands, national and international cooperation, and national/multi-agency liaison. |
|
Operational Intelligence |
Operational Intelligence supports planning crime reduction activity and deploying local resources to achieve operational objectives. It is used against Hotspots, joint operations, crime prevention campaigns, forming specialised squads, resource allocation and local prioritisation |
|
Tactical Intelligence |
Tactical Intelligence supports frontline areas, investigations and other operational areas in taking case-specific action to achieve enforcement objectives. It is used to facilitate arrests, surveillance operations, targeting, evidence-gathering, problem-oriented policing and disruption of the immediate criminal environment. |
|
Focus Area |
An identified ‘problem area’ within the New Zealand organised crime landscape, that is prioritised and endorsed by ODESC for OFCANZ action. |
|
Police TCG |
The Police National Tasking and Coordination Group that will be responsible for ensuring Police resources are assigned to priority operations. |
|
Police NIC |
The Police National Intelligence Centre, being established along similar timeframes to OFCANZ, with the aim of providing whole of government intelligence to Police and OFCANZ. |
|
NTAG |
The intelligence hub of the Police NIC, the National Targeting and Analysis Group, which includes police personnel together with staff from OFCANZ and key partner agencies |
|
Strategic Assessment |
An assessment produced by the Police NIC that provides a high-level context to the organised crime environment within New Zealand. |
|
Terms of Reference |
Document guiding the intelligence gathering and refinement phase for individual focus areas. |
|
Taskforce Operations Plan |
Document guiding an individual taskforce operation, with a specific target, objective, and approach |
The Tasking Framework described in this document is based on the following assumptions. If the assumptions change or are proven incorrect the process may need to be revised.
· In accordance with international good practice, OFCANZ will adopt an intelligence-led approach to its work.
· The Police NIC strategic assessments (and other intelligence products provided) will identify issues, some of which will subsequently become focus areas for OFCANZ.
· OFCANZ activities will focus on higher level organised crime, specifically at the national, international, and inter-agency levels. The Police NIC maintains an intelligence view across the entire spectrum, whilst Police and other agencies continue to be responsible for local, district and agency issues.
The Police NIC is being established at the same time as OFCANZ, with similar timeframes for starting operation. These papers assume that proposed initiatives arising from the NIC Project will be implemented according to current plans:
· Police Tasking & Coordination Group (TCG), which will coordinate requests for Police resources from Districts and OFCANZ, and be the point of escalation where conflicting priorities arise.
· Police National Targeting and Analysis Group (NTAG), which will include police personnel together with staff from OFCANZ and key partner agencies to facilitate the sharing of high-quality intelligence and a whole of government view.
· Strategic Assessments – provision of a ‘whole of government’ view of organised crime through intelligence products that will identify what organised crime context confronts New Zealand, and describe at a high-level a range of thematic issues within that context, with accompanying high-level summaries of particular identifiable organised crime entities that are associated with them.
The Tasking process is depicted in the diagram above and includes:
· receipt of a strategic assessment from the Police NIC;
· in consultation with other agencies, an OFCANZ-led review of the strategic assessment, resulting in prioritised Focus Areas for endorsement by ODESC;
· OFCANZ-led development of Terms of Reference in consultation with other agencies and support from Police, guiding the Target Development phase, where potential targets are identified and prioritised; and
· preparation of detailed Taskforce Operations Plans for specific targets, for agreement by the OFCANZ Operations Manager.
The Police NIC will develop, in conjunction with a wide range of other agencies, an annual strategic assessment presenting a 'whole of government' review of organised crime.
Beyond the annual strategic assessments, the Police NIC may produce additional assessments as new risks or threats emerge.
Based on the strategic assessment, OFCANZ will work with agencies to agree Focus Areas on which it will concentrate its efforts, taking account of any additional information that may not have been previously evident, and other jurisdictions' approaches to similar problems and trends.
Together with the agencies, OFCANZ will refine the list of Focus Areas and prioritise these based on set criteria (using processes developed with agencies as part of the Risk Prioritisation process). Discussions with agencies will also identify how other risk areas could be dealt with. This provides the opportunity to identify what controls currently exist to manage the entities or issues and to signal any perceived gaps.
OFCANZ will then present all risk areas to ODESC, identifying those that become OFCANZ Focus Areas and those where a response may be led by another agency. Once agreed by ODESC, OFCANZ embarks on more detailed and specific examination of each area, and subsequent development of intervention strategies.
The purpose of the Terms of Reference phase is to gather more information from within the Focus Area to identify potential targets or opportunities to disrupt criminal activities (e.g., any vulnerability in the organised criminal group or area where the most benefit can be attained for the effort expended).
OFCANZ will assign a Taskforce Leader to each Focus Area. The Taskforce Leader (supported by other OFCANZ groups eg, planning, financial crime, intelligence coordinator) then works with relevant agencies and Police groups (including the Police NIC and Proceeds of Crime representatives) to develop a Terms of Reference for approval by the Police Commissioner.
During this phase work will be undertaken to identify the risks in the Focus Area that should be tackled and in what sequence this will occur. The Terms of Reference will guide:
· activity in the Target Development phase (see below) which is focussed on proactive and specific intelligence collection to obtain more information on potential targets within the focus area;
· refinement and exploitation of specific intelligence on the potential targets; and
· planning in consultation with Police, agencies, and OFCANZ groups to determine the specific target(s) and approaches that will have the most effect against them (eg, investigation/arrest, disruption, asset recovery).
Once Terms of Reference have been agreed, Taskforce leaders will initiate further focused operations on the targets that have been prioritised for operational activity. This activity will include the development a Taskforce Operations Plan (there may be more than one target and subsequent Operations Plans within each Focus Area).
Operations Plans will be agreed with each of the agencies expected to commit resources to the taskforce. For Police, agreement will be through the Police TCG, which will be able to allocate Police resources to particular taskforce operations, and will act as the escalation point where conflicting priorities may arise between OFCANZ and District operations.
The Taskforce Operations Plan is approved by the OFCANZ Operations Manager.
The proposed Tasking Framework process identifies the following skills as required for OFCANZ:
· strategic intelligence liaison and coordination (for prioritisation and targeting);
· operational and logistical planning; and
· investigative skills and experience.
OFCANZ requires its own experienced staff (preferably with an intelligence background and/or understanding) in a liaison role, to work credibly with agencies and jurisdictions during the coordination, prioritisation, and target identification processes. These staff will be critical to ensuring the successful function of the multi-agency approach.
OFCANZ leads the coordination and prioritisation activities and will require strong liaison, presentation, and negotiation skills, along with a whole of government ‘mindset’ to ensure success in this role.
There will need to be considerable operational and logistical planning undertaken once potential taskforces are identified, to minimise multiple requests for specialist resources.
OFCANZ Operations and Financial Crime groups will provide investigative skills and experience in the development of the Terms of Reference and Taskforce Operations Plans.
The proposed Tasking Framework process identifies the following skills as required beyond OFCANZ resourcing:
· strategic and operational intelligence analysis;
· strategic intelligence liaison and coordination; and
· specialist investigative skills and experience.
The Police NIC will provide strategic and operational intelligence resource to support OFCANZ, providing intelligence products and updates as threats emerge or change. Additional resourcing may be required for the Police NIC to ensure the levels of support indicated.
Specialist Police resources required to support this process will be requested and allocated through the Police TCG.
Agency resources required to support this process include those involved in the development of intelligence (in consultation with the Police NIC), in intelligence liaison roles with OFCANZ, and others who may be involved in the agreement of focus areas and target identification.
Key processes will need to be developed to support the Tasking Framework, including:
· Strategic Assessment and other products (Police NIC in consultation with agencies);
· Focus Area Prioritisation/Threat Assessment (OFCANZ in consultation with and agencies);
· Target prioritisation (OFCANZ in consultation with agencies);
· Terms of Reference template (OFCANZ); and
· Taskforce Operations Plan template (OFCANZ).
Other considerations identified as part of the Tasking Framework consultation that will need to be addressed as the processes are further developed include:
· Ensuring the framework as described does not prove overly cumbersome and time consuming, and that OFCANZ has the ability to respond quickly to emerging threats.
· Ensuring the involvement of agencies at all levels so that the process is transparent and inclusive of agencies, ensuring clear responsibilities and avoidance of overlapping or unnecessarily duplicated activities.
· Leadership in the coordination of focus areas and targets with Police Districts and agencies, ensuring continued effort (where required) on those that are not tasked to OFCANZ.
· Close interaction with Police Proceeds of Crime / Asset Recovery capability, which is waiting on the outcome of civil forfeiture legislation, to ensure significant disruption tools are used to maximum effect against profit motivated organised criminals.
John Beaglehole
OFCANZ Establishment Director
June 2008
