London police come up with contingencies for no-deal Brexit
Police in London are deeply worried that officers will have serious difficulties hunting terrorists and sex crime offenders if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal that could regulate future bilateral relations.
The Guardian newspaper said in a report on Monday that the Scotland Yard was rushing to set up a “safety net unit” for the contingency situation in which Britain leaves the EU in March next year without having a deal that could give security agencies an access to EU policing tools and data bases.
Internal police documents showed that the new unit will cost around £2.5 million while the taxpayers should also pay around £250,000 for costs of renting a new office for the large team of officers and experts that will operate in the unit.
The National Crime Agency and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) had already drawn contingency plans for no-deal Brexit. The Home Office (Britain’s interior ministry) has approved the funding for London police’s safety net unit, said the Guardian.
Britain and the EU are trying to clinch a deal on Brexit in the coming weeks. Negotiators from the two sides will enter a top-secret phase of the talks this week although European sources have indicated that chances for a deal and a no-deal situation are equal.
A main bone of contention, which could cause the talks to collapse, is how Britain and the EU will treat the border between republic of Ireland and the UK province of Northern Ireland once Brexit takes place.
British security agencies had earlier warned that if London fails to secure a transition period after Brexit, it would be very hard for police and other authorities to put in place systems that could match the capabilities of EU policing tools and data centers like the Schengen Information System II (SIS II) which is used to monitor the movements of sex offenders or terrorist suspects.
The Guardian said the SIS II was checked about 539 million times last year by British police officers.
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