EUROINTEL 99 Den Haag The Netherlands, March 8, 1999

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• EUROINTEL 99Den Haag /The Netherlands, March 8,
  1999
• OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
• THE INTERPOL EXPERIENCE

Philippe Lejeune Crime Analyst Analytical
Criminal Intelligence Unit INTERPOL GENERAL
SECRETARIAT
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General Overview

• ICPO Interpol and crime analysis
• Open Sources and ICPO Interpol
• Open Sources pilot project
• Future / Conclusions

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ICPO Interpol

• Mission facilitating and developing
  international law enforcement cooperation in the
  fight against transnational crime
• Adding value to information to which it has
  access from a global perspective
• Information is provided by its Member States
  NCBs and stored in a relational database ICIS

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ICPO Interpol
Criminal Intelligence Directorate
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ICPO Interpol and Crime Analysis

• Centralized Analytical Function
• Analytical Criminal Intelligence Unit 8
  Analysts and 1 Head of Group
• All the Analysts are generalists
• Project-based tasking in close collaboration with
  a Specialized Officer

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ICPO Interpol and Open Sources

• How do Open Sources contribute to Interpols
  criminal intelligence activities ?
• Towards an Interpol Open Sources policy
• Open Sources Pilot Project

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ICPO Interpol and Open Sources

• Open Sources allow familiarization with a
  specific crime topic
• Strategic work in international environment
• IPSG Specialized Officers, and particularly Crime
  Analysts, are inevitably confronted with types
  of crime and/or regions of the world which they
  are not always familiar with
• Putting crime in its context

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ICPO Interpol and Open Sources

• Ascertain whether available confidential sources
  are representative of the real situation
• Global perception of crime versus national
  perception
• Open Sources allow to detect unreported elements
  and detect new investigative leads
• Timeliness of Open Sources

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ICPO Interpol and Open Sources

• More specific requests instead of general
  questionnaires sent out to Member States
• Questionnaires are time-consuming and the
  questions are roughly the same no matter what the
  subject is
• Assist the Member States in developing their own
  Open Sources practices

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ICPO Interpol and Open Sources

• There is a need for a structured approach in
  order to
• avoid duplication through sharing of sources and
  methods (reference databases)
• systematic use of Open Sources
• clear distinction between classified and
  Open Source information
• Take into account flexibility and/or limits of
  Open Sources

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ICPO Interpol and Open Sources

• Policy document drafted after horizontal and
  vertical consultations
• Highlights
• legal nominal information needs to be
  confirmed by the concerned NCBs
• organizational decentralized, yet co-ordinated
  approach (by the ACIU)
• tools / sources of information Internet
• output diversification of intelligence
  products

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ICPO Interpol and Open Sources

• Who is involved ?
• central role of the analytical unit ACIU
• trained documentalists
• specialized police groups
• Who is responsible for
• collection ?
• requirements definition ?
• exploitation ?

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Open Sources Pilot Project

• Topic illegal immigration and trafficking in
  human beings for sexual exploitation
• Methodology
• gathering all available data from ICIS
• comparative case analysis
• collection of Open Sources aimed at filling
  blind spots in the available confidential
  sources

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Open Sources Pilot Project

• Methodology
• without open sources, the project would have
  ended as a negative feasibility study
• Certain results....

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Open Sources Pilot Project

• Open Sources provided information about
• used routes
  (International Organization for Migration)
• profile of victims / offenders
• why certain countries are more vulnerable either
  as transit or destination countries
• Outcome

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Conclusions

• Open Sources data gathering and exploitation must
  be considered as essential in all domains of law
  enforcement and particularly in crime analysis
• Underestimating the importance of Open Sources is
  unrealistic
• There is a great in-house potential to exploit a
  wide variety of sources (e.g. access to a large
  number of languages)

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Future Actions

• An awareness training package should be
  developed in cooperation with all involved
• Diversification of operational and strategic
  products
• Exchange of best practices / new techniques in
  the widest possible sense !

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EUROINTEL 99Den Haag /The Netherlands, March 8,
1999 OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE THE INTERPOL
EXPERIENCE

• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION