Predictive policing is the use of historical crime and other data in complex statistical models to predict where and when there is a high risk of new crime events. These predictions can then be used to direct police patrols proactively. Despite the increasing use and commercialisation of predictive policing worldwide, academic research into the methodological and operational dimensions of predictive policing is relatively limited. Since 2015 we have researched and tested several predictive crime models methodologically and operationally, based on police and other (big) data sources in several Belgian police districts. In this article, we summarise the results of six years of empirical research into predictive policing and look to the future of predictive policing research and practice.

In deze bijdrage doen wij onderzoek naar de vraag hoe preventief politieoptreden op basis van datakoppeling zou moeten worden genormeerd. Onze analyse is gebaseerd op het Sensingproject Outlet Roermond. Wij stellen dat bestaande wetgeving onvoldoende in staat is de privacy van burgers te beschermen als die burgers ten behoeve van preventief politieoptreden in een algoritmische risicogroep worden geplaatst. Om die reden moet nieuwe regelgeving mede worden gebaseerd op een nieuw concept: group privacy. Ook stellen wij dat een nieuwe wettelijke grondslag recht zal moeten doen aan strafvorderlijke basisbeginselen nu preventief optreden op grond van datakoppeling moet worden gezien als opsporing.

The aim of the present research was to gain insight into the topic of ‘task-related rule-breaking behavior’ (TRB) among Dutch police officers. TRB is a more refined alternative for the concept of noble cause corruption and has been defined as: police officers breaking rules or formal agreements for the purpose of acting in a manner that contributes to the lawful police task. Qualitative research has been conducted within one of the ten regional police forces in the Netherlands. Results show that TRB appears to be a relatively common phenomenon during policework. Behaviors are categorized in sixteen categories and five overarching outlines. In addition, attention is given to several important factors that could be related to TRB being distinguishable between police officers’ individual responsibility and organizational factors. To handle TRB, it is recommended to pay attention to the police officers’ approach of judging and rationalizing their own behavior, their level of knowledge, and social skills. Furthermore, organizational structure (i.e., spam of control) and police leadership may, among other factors, play an important role in encouraging TRB. Especially the way supervisors deal with police officers’ professional autonomy needs specific attention in order to reduce TRB. Autonomy needs guidance in the form of clear orders followed by feedback and coaching. Also, an active form of ethical leadership is needed. An action framework is presented that could be helpful to supervisors to judge and thereby reduce forms of TRB.

De Commissie-Koops heeft onderzocht of het conceptwetsvoorstel Boek 2 voldoende rekening houdt met het digitale tijdperk anno 2018 en in de nabije toekomst. Dit artikel is een beschouwing op het rapport van de Commissie, waarbij de aanbevelingen met betrekking tot openbronnenonderzoek en het beslag op gegevensdragers uitgebreid besproken worden. Daarnaast wordt ingegaan op het fenomenen van de ‘dataficering’ van het opsporingsproces. In het artikel wordt antwoord gegeven op de vraag welke bijdrage het rapport heeft geleverd aan de modernisering van het Wetboek van Strafvordering.

The new Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 extends the (special) powers of the intelligence and security services and introduces a new system of checks and balances. In this article several of the most impactful changes and underlying issues are discussed. They include the technology neutral approach, the new bulk surveillance powers, oversight (its role, tasks, independence and the use of outside experts), complaints and whistleblowers procedure, the lack of appeal procedures and the exchange of information with foreign agencies.

While contract killings by organized crime groups are by no means new to the Netherlands (with around twenty to thirty cases a year over the last few decades), there is reason to believe that the nature of the killings has changed. The key question of this article is which recent developments can be identified in relation to the phenomenon of contract killings. The availability of new groups of hitmen and new means has led to a number of changes in modus operandi for contract killings within organized crime. On the one hand, there is a process of professionalization when it comes to methods of observation and counterstrategies, which involves the use of the latest technological tools. The digitization of resources and traces plays a significant part in this. On the other hand, the perpetrators are resorting to much coarser methods for the actual killings. This may be attributed to the abundance of heavy firearms available in the Netherlands and to new inexperienced homegrown hitmen, who are willing to kill in exchange for payment.

Police forces and law enforcement agencies in many countries are continuously trying to optimize the use of technologies in policing and law enforcement. Efforts are being made to remove existing technological, legal and organizational obstacles to create more opportunities of promising technologies, both existing and new. This contribution describes the results of a survey among 46 police forces and other law enforcement agencies in eleven countries. Their experiences with policing technologies and their needs and preferences in this regard are described. The prevalence and satisfaction of existing technologies, including wiretapping, fingerprints, DNA research, database coupling, data mining and profiling, camera surveillance and network analyses were investigated. Legal, technological and organizational obstacles for the use of technology in policing were mapped and the extent to which policing technologies are evaluated and yield success stories was investigated. The main obstacles, according to the respondents, are insufficient financial resources and insufficient availability of technology. One in four organizations is lacking any clear, appealing success stories and half of the respondents indicated they were not performing any evaluations on the effectiveness of using particular technologies in policing. As a result, the information available on whether technologies in policing are actually working is very limited.

The Dutch National Police deploys video technology, for instance body-worn video camera (bodycams), drones, helicopters with cameras, and mobile units for surveillance. Four types of video technology are discussed: CCTV, bodycams, smart cameras and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). These four types will be the most prominent applications of visual technology in the coming years, according to ‘Vision on sensing’, published in 2015 by the National Police. The potential benefits of video images for prosecution and in the courtroom are discussed in a separate paragraph, followed by a survey of recent changes in the laws regulating this technology.

A second empirical revolution in law is in full swing: legal big data have made their entrance and will play an increasingly important role in the legal field. Legal big data, for example, increase the accessibility and transparency of files. They make it easier for legislators to find out how society views proposed legislation. Using big data, all jurisprudence can be processed very easily and judicial decisions can be predicted with a high degree of certainty. The contribution concludes with a number of legal and ethical issues and methodological challenges in relation to legal big data, such as ownership, privacy and representativeness.

Both the Court of Justice and the regional Court of The Hague ruled the retention of telecommunications data directive and the Dutch Wet bewaarplicht telecommunicatiegegevens in violation of the right to respect for privacy. The police and the Dutch Prosecutors Office have attempted to clarify the importance of the retention for criminal investigation. However, without an efficiency and effectiveness assessment of the method to request and analyse telecommunication data, it is not possible to substantiate the significance of data retention. To ‘save’ the retention of telecommunication data in its current form, but also to assess the importance of the existing and new investigative methods, a thorough analysis is necessary.

Indien ontwerpwetgeving leidt tot de verwerking van persoonsgegevens, moet de wetgever in veel gevallen een toets uitvoeren aan artikel 8 EVRM en het relevante EU-recht. Bij die toets draait het vaak om de vraag of de beperkende maatregel voldoet aan het proportionaliteitsvereiste. In de Straatsburgse rechtspraak is de proportionaliteit een paraplu waaronder uiteenlopende waarborgen worden geschaard. De complexiteit en veelomvattendheid van de proportionaliteitstoets werken door op nationaal niveau. De wijze waarop de proportionaliteitstoets door de Nederlandse wetgever wordt verricht, is wisselvallig. Soms vindt een expliciete toetsing plaats in het kader van artikel 8 EVRM, vaak is dat ook niet het geval.

Intelligence Led Policing (ILP) is an increasingly important concept for policing. ILP is about analyzing information and knowledge and using these analyses to support decision making about police work. The implementation of ILP is characterized by different stages of development. In this paper we describe each stage by five aspects. The stages are: intuition, justify actions, guiding actions and prescribing actions. The five aspects are: collecting information, analyzing information, presenting analyses, interaction and using analyses.

Wie kijkt naar de opmars van technologie, ziet dat onze samenleving onder invloed daarvan drastisch is veranderd. De vraag die daarmee naar voren treedt, is of de uitgangspunten die ten grondslag liggen aan de huidige wet- en regelgeving voor de bescherming van persoonsgegevens wel voldoende hebben kunnen meebewegen in deze verandering. Vanuit deze vraag schetst deze bijdrage de belangrijkste technologische en maatschappelijke tendensen die de privacy raken, om daarnaast bij ieder van deze tendensen kort aan te geven wat de implicaties voor de Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens zijn. De conclusie is dat een aantal ontwikkelingen zich moeizaam verhoudt tot het huidige wettelijk regime.