The Dutch Strategic Knowledge Centre: Cocreating state of the art insights to counter organised crime.

Professional criminals operating out of The Netherlands hold key positions in transnational organised crime. Producing synthetic drugs and marihuana (‘Nederwiet’) in massive amounts for a worldwide customer base, they are also prime movers of cocaine and other narcotics. Professional facilitators support this drugs industry with logistics and security, asset management and extreme violence. Legitimate businesses increasingly become involved in criminal schemes and civil society is undermined by intimidation and corruption. Acknowledging that such organized crime manifestations pose an existential threat to public institutions and the rule of law, Dutch law enforcement has adopted a broader and more strategic approach. This offensive includes the establishment of the Strategic Knowledge Center for Organised end Subversive Crime in Vlissingen as an interdisciplinary center of expertise. The SKC intends to become a networking hub supporting strategy development for enforcement organisations, local and national government and public bodies. Working from an explicitly international focus, the SKC aims to bring together strategic and tactical intelligence products, academic expertise, insights from investigative journalists and NGO’s and data from open and closed sources. With the help of data scientists and subject matter experts, unique strategic insights will be developed to enable valuable alliances as well as optimal deployment of scarce budgets and workforce. This presentation highlights the SKC’s approach, programme and first experiences of working with mixed teams of students and faculty, consultants, intelligence and enforcement experts and think tanks. It combines an informative outreach with an invitation for productive cooperation.