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The EEA Grants project “Support to the State Police for increasing effectiveness and quality of economic crime investigation in Latvia” has been successfully completed

On April 25, 2024, a closing conference was held dedicated to the EEA Grants programme’s “International Police Cooperation and Combating Crime” project No. EEZ/VP/2020/1 “Support to the State Police for increasing effectiveness and quality of economic crime investigation in Latvia”.

The goal of this project was to make the prevention and combating of economic crimes more effective, to achieve faster and higher-quality pre-trial investigations of these crimes, and to ensure the submission of documents for criminal prosecution. The closing conference of the project presented the results achieved, future prospects, and discussed opportunities to promote further mutual cooperation.

The project implementation period was from July 1, 2020, to April 30, 2024, with a total project funding of 8,571,889 EUR. The main activities implemented within the project were the improvement of infrastructure and technical capabilities; the improvement of professional knowledge in the field of investigating economic crimes and conducting expertise, by organizing seminars, practical trainings, study visits, and international conferences. A digital guide was also created within the project, which compiled information characterizing the industry. The State Police’s cooperation partners were the State Provision Agency, the Information Center of the Ministry of the Interior, and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

One of the priorities was to promote employee satisfaction with the working conditions of the State Police, therefore, the infrastructure and technical capacity of the premises of the Main Criminal Police Department’s Economic Crime Enforcement Department, Cybercrime Control Department, and Forensic Department at Bruņinieku iela 72B and Stabu iela 89, Riga, were improved. Construction began on July 31, 2023, and was completed on April 26, 2024. The funding for this construction project was 5,954,274.92 EUR, of which 893,141.24 EUR was allocated from the state budget. The initiator of the construction was the State Agency for Procurement, the main contractor was SIA “SELVA BŪVE”, the construction supervisor was SIA “CMB”, and the developer of the construction project was the general partnership “Lūsis V un MV Būveksperti”.

To improve the professional knowledge of employees and strengthen cooperation processes between law enforcement agencies, a comprehensive educational program was launched within the project, as a result of which 3155 employees – 1969 women and 1186 men from organizations such as the State Police, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Latvia, the Financial Intelligence Unit, the State Revenue Service, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau, Eurojust, Europol, and other institutions were trained in 27 seminars and conferences.

The project also provided an opportunity for officials from Latvia to go on study visits to other law enforcement agencies in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In total, 72 trips were made, involving 212 people from the Main Criminal Police Department of the State Police, especially the DNA, document, IT, audio, and accounting expertise departments of the State Police’s Forensic Department, as well as from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Six activities were organized in cooperation with the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (ØKOKRIM) in the field of combating environmental crime.

The closing conference highlighted not only the results achieved but also discussed future prospects and opportunities to promote further mutual cooperation. It was concluded that the approach to investigating economic crimes and increasing efficiency indicators has been significantly strengthened and improved, however, law enforcement officers must continue to improve their knowledge and develop collaborative practices to always be one step ahead of criminals.

The final conference took place within the framework of the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 programme’s project “Support to the State Police for increasing effectiveness and quality of economic crime investigation in Latvia” (project number EEZ/VP/2020/1).