With the financial support of the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme
European Commission – Directorate-General Home Affairs
PROJECT #: HOME/2011/ISEC/AG/PRUM/4000002150
OBJECTIVES: to promote an efficient use of Forensic DNA data exchanged under Prüm by:
1) supporting the implementation of the Treaty in its technical, legal and organisational aspects,
2) developing methods of evaluation of the exchange, and
3) offering recommendations to strengthen Prüm cooperation.
ACTIVITIES: Over 36 months seven organizations (European forensic institutes, universities and Europol) will address the issues described above that are faced by all EU member states, with a focus on Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The project’s benefits will be delivered through six activity areas. The first three (T1-T3) will support Prüm implementation, while the remaining activities (T4-T6) will identify the full potential benefits of Prüm by evaluating the exchange of Forensic DNA data, and how to improve both that process and follow-up actions.
T1: Technical implementation of the Prüm DNA exchange through Belgium. This activity will give Belgium the ability to process the DNA hits resulting from exchanging with all other EU countries, by providing adequate staff and IT solutions. It will deliver direct benefits to all member states, both directly through improved cooperation, but also through a freely available support system for processing exchanges more efficiently in all member states.
T2: Technical implementation of the Prüm DNA exchange through France. This activity will develop a procedure to help resolve the problem of false positive matches in the French DNA database. It will not only make the French hit validation procedure more efficient - hereby offering direct benefits to all EU countries - but also lead to recommendations for standardising validation procedures throughout the EU to improve interoperability between all member states.
T3: Gap analysis of the DNA follow-up procedures throughout the EU. This will survey the legal procedures for exchanging follow-up information. It will also assess public policy issues (in terms of validity, utility, cost-effectiveness and legitimacy) that are critical for such exchanges to be possible. It will gather information from all member states to identify options for mitigating or better managing the obstacles (gaps) to cooperation. Best practices to ensure more efficient and harmonised data transmission and follow-up actions throughout the EU will be shared in an EU wide workshop.
T4: Strategic analysis of the benefit of the Prüm DNA exchange. This activity will consist of the spatial mapping of Prüm DNA hits in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, hereby offering a DNA-based snapshot of transnational offending. The geographical distribution of important transnational crime will be further analysed against socio-economic and political factors as well as the general criminogenic environment to inform recommendations about how the strengthening of Prüm can better prevent, detect and reduce transnational crime.
T5: Operational analysis of the benefit of the Prüm DNA exchange. This will evaluate the forensic utility of Prüm hits by assessing how they have contributed to case resolution. Case studies will be conducted in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands to learn lessons in order to optimise the results of processing Prüm hits by law-enforcement and the judicial authorities.
T6: Integration of the forensic intelligence derived from the project into the EU policy cycle. This work will deliver practical solutions for using the experience, technical products and knowledge gained from the project in the EU policy cycle.
COMPANION PROJECT: Be-Gen