5 Principles to Develop Effective Online Policing

Nearly all European citizens (92 percent in 2023) use the Internet, sparking the need for law enforcement to reconsider how they leverage online environments. A new paper from Europol examined some of those opportunities.

The law enforcement agency’s Innovation Lab and the European Clearing Board’s Strategic Group on Online Policing published the concept paper Policing in an Online World: Relevance in the 21st century.

“Social media, gaming, online banking, shopping, or working from home are connecting citizens to virtual communities and online services for up to half of their waking hours (on average),” the report said. “…This migration into the digital realm has resulted in an unprecedented surge in online crime.”

But Europol observed an imbalance here. Criminals quickly exploited online environments—with bad actors seeing them as lawless, a virtual wild West—which has likely affected a large portion of the populace. Meanwhile, only an estimated 54 percent of citizens in the European Union interacted with any form of public authority in 2023, including the police.

The report noted that while community policing in the physical world can provide support, prevent crimes, and mitigate or de-escalate issues, virtual community policing efforts “are often in their infancy or, in many places, simply do not exist.” In recent surveys of citizens in various EU nations, the majority supported law enforcement, but only a minority were confident in police’s ability to protect them from digital crimes, according to the report.

To support online policing efforts, the European Clearing Board’s Strategic Group on Online Policing crafted a set of guiding principles based on real-world experience, academic analysis, and wider trends. Overall, the board determined that an effective online police force should:

• Be permanently present in the online communities where citizens are, which would counter the impression that the Internet is a lawless space
  
  
• Transparently engage with all levels of society and focus on building relationships through dialogue, which builds trust, especially with hard-to-reach or at-risk target groups
  
  
• Be transparent “by being fully uniformed, using police accounts, and declaring its presence and purpose on a digital platform”
  
  
• Stand for evidence-based truth to counter misinformation and disinformation, helping citizens make informed choices
  
  
• Offer convenience by lowering the threshold for contacting the police and being constantly available
  
  

The Europol analysis cited the successes of existing online policing initiatives in Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Poland. These initiatives need not be expensive to achieve a high impact.

“The initial service offering may be modest in scope, but from an initial pilot involving only a few police officers, it could grow into an entirely new and relevant police service portfolio,” the paper said. “…The cost of starting an online patrol may be lower than the cost of a squad car.”

To support these efforts, departments can begin with a small set of officers that are, ideally, digitally literate and have social media or online gaming experience. A social media manager and someone—even a civilian—who is technically proficient as a camera operator or editor can provide insight into current trends and develop effective online content and campaigns. In terms of equipment, the investment can “be modest,” such as purchasing gaming PCs and editing software instead of specialized or enterprise-grade solutions.

But before jumping into putting together a team, departments need to assess if their municipal and national laws allow for online policing and, if they do, what that effort should look like.