SCDEA Vision, Mission, Organisational Values and Strategic Priorities
Our Vision
To Protect Scotland's communities from serious organised crime
Our Mission
Working every day for the people of Scotland - dismantling serious organised crime
Our Organisational Values
Trust, Commitment and Respect
Strategic Priorities – as set by Scottish Ministers
Work with the Serious Organised Crime Task force and others to effectively implement the Scottish Serious Organised Crime Strategy 'Letting our Communities Flourish’.
Work with ACPOS and other law enforcement agencies to ensure that tactical activity at local and national levels is focussed on those crime groups and individuals that cause the greatest threat, risk and harm to our communities and is designed to disrupt their criminal activities and to enforce legislation to confiscate their profits and seize their assets.
Complete work to increase staffing within SCDEA to boost analytical and specialist capability to mainstream organised crime mapping; to provide additional specialist staff; to support law enforcement to ensure the most effective and efficient use of covert and overt assets across Scottish policing; and to work with the Scottish Government to put in place arrangements for direct recruitment of police members.
Contribute to the successful delivery of the Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh, including helping to realise the full benefits of the project to boost Scotland’s capacity to tackle serious organised crime and ensuring plans are in place to deliver the relocation of SCDEA on time and budget.
The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), was formally established in law on 1 April 2007, following enactment of the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006.
The SCDEA is maintained by the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA), a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), which means that although SPSA and the SCDEA are accountable to the Scottish Parliament through Scottish Ministers, we are able to operate at arms length. In addition, Scottish Ministers have the mandate to set strategic priorities for the Agency against which performance is reported annually.
Role of the SCDEA
Under statute, the SCDEA has a primary role in preventing and detecting serious organised crime in Scotland. In fulfilling this role, the SCDEA gathers, stores and analyses information which drives intelligence-led enforcement activity and the use of innovative intervention tactics to reduce the threat, risk and harm posed to Scotland’s communities from serious organised crime groups.
The SCDEA comprises both police officers who are seconded from Scottish police forces (although police officers can be seconded from any force in the UK) and members of police staff. Together they make up a professional, committed and highly specialist team, dedicated to protecting Scotland’s communities from serious organised crime.
A number of specialist services are delivered by the SCDEA on behalf of the Police Service and Criminal Justice community in Scotland. These include the Scottish Witness Liaison Unit (SWLU), the Scottish Money Laundering Unit (SMLU), SCDEA e-Crime and our Technical Surveillance Group (TSG).
The Agency has offices to the West of Glasgow, West of Edinburgh and in the North East of Scotland. On the 2 June 2009, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice announced a £4m funding package to enable us to develop our covert policing capacity and capability and to establish the Scottish Intelligence Coordination Unit (SICU) for serious organised crime in Scotland. We have recently leased accommodation at the former Livingston Police Office and are in the process of recruiting staff for the SICU which will have a focus on the mapping of Serious Organised Crime Groups (SOCGs), Human Trafficking and Intelligence coordination on serious and complex fraud.
Who We Work With
Partnership working is the key to our success. On a local, national and international scale we work closely with all law enforcement agencies to build our knowledge of serious organised criminal activity which enables us to tackle, disrupt and dismantle not just those serious organised crime groups operating in Scotland, but also those who inflict misery on our communities from outwith our territorial boundaries. Equally, we are committed to continually building and enhancing our relationships with a wide variety of public and private sector bodies and the voluntary sector in order to ensure that we sustain a hostile environment against those involved in serious organised crime.
Through these close working partnerships and key relationships across the world, we make Scotland a hostile place for serious organised crime groups, ensuring our communities are Safer and Stronger.