90 Seconds to Midnight - Capacity Building Processes for Environmental Law Enforcement during Permacrisis

• In Event: Governing the Effects of Climate Change: Local policing adaptations, impacts and implications

Abstract

Despite the growing recognition of environmental crimes as a pressing policing matter, the enforcement of existing environmental laws, amplified by emerging climate-related legislation, will require significant changes in the structure, prioritisation, resource allocation, and operational processes of police services. The EU landscape in this regard has been for example shaped by the introduction of the European Green Deal, revision of the EU Environmental Crime Directive, and/or development of ecocide legislation. Police in EU member states (and most likely elsewhere, too) must be better prepared to handle a new wave of environmental legislation, despite their staff shortages, insufficient budget allocations, lack of political will or increasing number of demonstrations opposing the EU policy direction (e.g. farmers’ protests). The field of environmental crime enforcement is complex, fragmented, and dynamically changing, presenting challenges in maintaining sufficient staffing levels and balancing national versus local priorities. Therefore, policing strategies need to include new approaches, such as engaging with citizen science projects, leveraging non-governmental organizations, or utilizing geospatial data. The paper explores the ways how to build and strengthen capacity for policing environmental crimes within the police service, and how these processes can be observed and evaluated.

Author

• Anna Matczak, The Hague University of Applied Science