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TACKLING CARGO CRIME


A breakthrough starts with a sense of responsibility, and awareness that something has to change. It helps if recommendations and options to act are ‘assigned’ to certain stakeholders. Otherwise, many will acknowledge the importance, but no one feels responsible to act. Therefore, it helps to clearly stress that the Ministry of Justice and Security and the associated security domain, cannot conquer transport crime and address the vulnerabilities in road freight transport solely by itself (in addition to the measures that are being, or could be taken, by the private sector). Inter-departmental awareness at a government level is required in combination with much-needed public-private collaboration.


Directions and recommendations aimed at a breakthrough…


The report includes a wide variety of recommendations. These include:


• Public-private collaboration and inter-departmental awareness are required: the challenge transcends the boundaries of the security domain;


•


Initiate an upward movement with a new covenant between the main stakeholders;


• Make use of the momentum to tackle the fierce competition and working conditions at the European level;


• A license requirement for all road haulage operators*


• ‘Undercover boss’ style ‘field ‘safaris’ to counter institutional detachment from the real-world;


•


Introduce more tech-solutions to improve law enforcement results;


• Foster supply chain responsibility, instead of focussing mainly on supply chain liability (Corporate Social Responsibility);


• A public-private resilience fund;


• A transport monitor for ‘security and resilience’


* In the Netherlands, road haulage operators are currently exempted from requiring a license if they stay below 500 kilos payload capacity.


Marcel van de Ven Eric Bervoets


Marcel: “We were asked to undertake a ‘street wise’ research project. Through the relationships we made, we were able to gain much more information about what is actually going on at the ground level. That was very important because we wanted to look at the symptoms and the breeding ground which helped to explain why certain types of crime existed, and to determine what elements could be changed.


“That is why this research is titled ‘Breakthrough Requested’ because what we saw is that the vulnerabilities and social circumstances of people, their wages etc., can makes them vulnerable to criminals. So, more law enforcement alone is not the answer. Our advice is that there needs to be more public, private and inter-departmental (Dutch Government) awareness and cooperation.”


Vigilant spoke to the report’s authors, transport and security specialist, Marcel van de Ven, and criminologist, Eric Bervoets, to ask them what they hope to see as a result of their research and recommendations …


‘BREAKTHROUGH REQUESTED’ TO TACKLE THE ‘BREEDING GROUND’ OF CARGO CRIME


Eric: “The problems we identified have to transcend the security domain. If you continue doing the same as you did before, you are not going to realise a breakthrough at all. This is not only a Dutch problem but a European problem that needs to be solved internationally.


“In the report, we say that a multiple perspective is needed to fight crime in the transport industry. Law enforcement is OK and should be sophisticated and continue, but next to this you need to influence the societal background. There are too many drivers, employers and companies that are given offers they cannot refuse. Some criminals are very wealthy and well-organised and know the ways of using social engineering to foster corruption. They use this to get information to get to places where they can access cargo. Someone has to close the tap.


“We used police reports and statistics but as a criminologist I should always be aware of the so-called ‘Dark Number’. The real number of these types of crimes, of social engineering, can only be estimated, but it’s not rocket science. We used TAPA EMEA’s incident registrations as well and, often, they were more helpful to use than our own police registrations.”


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