ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE POLICE

 

 

 

H.E. van HELTEN

 

Chairman of the Environment Working Party of the Co-ordination Police Counsel.

Gemeentepolitie Leeuwarden, P.O. Box 8535, 8903 KM  Leeuwarden (The Netherlands)

 

 

                               

 

                                One of the objectives of the National Environmental Policy Plan (NMP) is to intensify the enforcement of environmentel legislation. The police are invol­ved in administrative as well as criminal law enforcement. Enforcement o­f spe­cial laws, including rules protecting the environment, already belongs to the regular police duties.

 

                                On Wednesday 20 December 1989, the Co-ordinating Police Council organi­sed a congress on the subject of "Experience in Enforcement" in co-operation with the Inspectorate for the Environment and the Department of Justice. For some time now the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment (VROM) provides funds to the police for specific projects to intensify the enforcement of environmental laws. This intensification has to be continued in the future, but will be integrated gradually in the daily execution of police duties (the basic police care).

 

                                To a large extent the enforcement of environmental legislation will be carried out in an administrative way and mainly by local and regional authori­ties. Extra funds are allocated to municipal authorities to intensify enforce­ment, to improve co-operation with other authorities and organisations and to give more information and better training to people charged with environmental duties. Environmentally directed policing will have to link up with administra­ti­ve enforcement.

 

                                To the police the efforts of enforcing environmental legislation have by now become a matter of course at all levels of the organisation although they are relatively new to most forces. Externally these efforts are - independently as well as in support of other agencies - aimed at prevention and repression. Internally they are aimed at giving an example to others in environmental care within the organisation.

 

                                This means that:

1.                             enforcement of environmental legislation must be a fixed item on the agenda of the local triangular counsel of the mayor, the public prosecu­tor and the police chief.

2.                             at all levels in the police force adequate quantities and qualities must be available in order to perform the necessary environmental law en­force­ment.

3.                             environmental enforcement by the police starts at the level of the local execution of basic police duties and can furthermore take place:

a.at regional, national and international levels, where geographical as well as organisational support can be given, if necessary through enlarging the scale of the capacity in manpower and recources to be deployed;

b.at levels of operation defined by criteria of efficiency and (more than local) importance;

c.at the levels needed for an efficient co-operation with other orga­nisa­tions involved in judicial investigations.

4.                             the regular police with their specific expertise and experience in the perfor­mance of their duties can take care of operational co-ordination and attune all criminal investigations in the field of environmental enforcement.

5.                             the co-operation in the execution of environmental law enforcement between the various police departments, the administrative agencies (monitoring offici­als) and the specialised law enforcement agencies will be based on parity.

6.                             a network is developed through which the necessary information for an optimal execution of environmental enforcement will become available at local, regional, national and international levels.

7.                             with reference to the exemplary function the internal conduct of affairs will be screened for environmentally damaging aspects and measures will be taken to minimise this kind of damage.

8.                             with reference to the limited possibilities within the actual police budget the necessary means must be found by rearranging the objectives and priorities to be able to invest in:

a. manpower

b. training

c. equipment

d. information and communication structures.

 

                                The respective authorities are all faced with the demands of the NMP to intensify the execution of environmental legislation in the fields of permitting (tightening the rules), monitoring and controlling. Environmental law enforce­ment requires close co-operation between the administration, the police and the judicial authorities.

 

                                Because of the administrative primacy in environmental enforcement the efforts of the police and the public prosecution must be attuned to get the highest possible return for the eighty million guilders budget. This combined effort must most of all be made locally and regionally.

 

                                Meanwhile the Dutch Society of Local Communities, the Public Prosecution and the Co-ordinating Police Counsel have advised to provide the proper conditi­ons on the national level. For example guidelines to choose between and attune administrative and penal actions in regard of environmental crimes.

 

                                Police activities will be accounted for in two-yearly progress-report on environmental law enforcement. A major increase in police efforts is necessary and can be effected at several levels simultaneously.

 

                                The Co-ordinating Police Counsel has suggested to make an obligatory effort of one percent of the actual organisational strength as a commitment of the respec­tive police forces. On this basis planning - linked with existing pro­jects - of local and regional activities becomes a practical possibility. At local level this may result in a chapter on environment in the police policy plan and at regional level this could lead to agreements on environmentally directed policing in the regions.

 

                                The planned budgets could be spent as follows:

a.To execute the basic police duties in the sense of environmentally directed monitoring at least seventy-two million guilders can be made available of which at least thirty-six million will be reciprocated financing of the extra efforts to implement the NMP. So extra funds totalling 36 million will go to the respec­tive police forces under the condition that they spend the same amount themselves on environmental enforcement.

b.The regional police co-operation concerning environmental duties will be supported by an additional twelve million. So in addition of the existing stimulation of expertise and co-ordination, each region will get an extra five hundred thousand guilders a year for environmental enforcement.

c.On the national level again an additional twelve million guilders will be put into the central police budgets to finance training and education directed at the local, regional and central police activities concerning the environment. We are very much aware of the need to develop our know-how and expertise.

 

                                The provincial aspect is only a slight complication as far as the police are concerned, because some provinces have more than one police region.

 

                                The working-group Environment of the Central Police Surveillance Commit­tee will continue to advise on the development of environmentally directed police work. The developments within the other central police committees, espe­cially on Traffic and Criminal Investigation, will be taken into account as well as the experiences and views of the police chiefs, who are responsable for the regional environment portfolio, the regional and local co-ordinators and other police officials involved in environmental enforcement.

 

                                The police have to make clear what they already are doing for the envi­ron­ment and what they plan to do in the near future. Essential elements are:

-local planning of activities

-a specific chapter on environment in the respective policy plans for the police

-regional agreements on joint efforts of police forces directed at the environ­ment

-a specific chapter on environment in the annual reports of the respecti­ve police forces.

 

                                The EPA-workshop in the United States in October 1989 taught me the difference between compliance and enforcement. Compliance can be attained by negotiations, permitting and controlling. Enforcement is the repressive approach to violations of the environmental legislation.

We are very happy to get the opportunity to send police officers to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre in Glynco, Georgia, USA where they hope to learn from EPA and FBI how they deal with problems concerning policing the environ­ment.

 

                                As I said we are very much aware of the extra training needed. Next month a police education workshop will be aimed at a combined effort of all police training institutes.

 

                                So you can see that the Dutch police are intensifying their activities in the field of environmental law enforcement. The bulk of their activities will lie in patrolling the environment, directed specifically to violati­ons of the rules protecting the environment and to report imminent threats to the environ­ment to the proper authorities. Next to that further improve­ment of police expertise is also important.

 

                                We have asked politicians and administrators to issue guidelines for police activities and to tell us how our enforcement programme should like like locally, regionally, nationally and even internationally. That will help us to find our way in the tangle of environmental regulations and to make choices:

Where do you want the police to hit really hard? On which priorities do you want us to concentrate our efforts?

 

                                Although we know, what we are only one of the agencies involved, the Co-ordinating Police Counsel and the Environment Working Party will do their bit to develop the police role attuned to the policies and efforts of the administrati­on.