Serious and organised crime

Regional organised crime units (ROCUs) should lead the regional response to serious and organised crime (SOC). Police forces should work closely with ROCUs to coordinate the regional response against the highest harm SOC threats.

There are nine ROCUs across England and Wales. There is a separate collaborative arrangement for the London region incorporating the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police and the British Transport Police. We tailor our inspection of the London region to consider this different arrangement.

Serious and organised crime inspections

In 2022, we changed how we inspect this aspect of policing to incorporate inspections of the ten regions, as well as the nine regional organised crime units (ROCUs), throughout England and Wales. We continued to inspect the 43 police forces across England and Wales. This improved our understanding of how well forces and ROCUs work together to tackle serious organised crime.

In our inspections we judge how well force and ROCUs are at disrupting serious and organised crime. We use the following assessment framework.  This includes the 4P approach (prevent, pursue, protect, prepare) that was the framework set out by the government in the serious and organised crime strategies in 2013 and 2018.

The force/ROCU makes good use of all available intelligence to identify, understand and prioritise serious and organised crime (SOC) and inform effective decision making.

• strategic analysis directs and prioritises SOC intelligence collection; and
• the force/ROCU assesses threat, harm, risk and vulnerability to inform an operational response that reduces the effects of SOC.

The force/ROCU has the right systems, processes, people and skills to tackle SOC and keep the public safe.

• effective strategic management and planning to meet SOC demand
• the force/ROCU effectively manages and co-ordinates its response to serious and organised crime threats; and
• the force/ROCU aims to continually improve and develop how it responds to SOC threats.

Disruptive activity reduces the threat from SOC (Pursue).

• the force/ROCU maximises disruption of serious and organised crime by considering a range of overt and covert tactics; this includes using the powers of partner agencies to frustrate organised criminals.

The force/ROCU prevents people from engaging or re-engaging in organised crime (Prevent).

• the force/ROCU has a consistent and structured approach to identifying those people at risk of being drawn into SOC or whose offending is likely to intensify and become more serious
• the force/ROCU works with public and private sector partners to effectively deliver prevent initiatives and diversionary schemes; and
• SOC offender management prevents those people in the criminal justice system from continuing to offend.

Communities, organisations and individuals are resistant and resilient to the impact from serious and organised crime (Protect and Prepare).

• police and partner agencies reduce risk and vulnerability in local communities.

Reports

An inspection of the south‑west regional response to serious and organised crime – 12 June 2025

This inspection examined how well police forces tackle serious and organised crime in Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

Improving the response to organised immigration crime – 16 May 2025

This inspection examined how effectively the police and National Crime Agency tackle organised immigration crime in England and Wales.

An inspection of the south‑east regional response to serious and organised crime – 30 August 2024

This inspection examined how well police forces tackle serious and organised crime in Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley.

An inspection of the West Midlands regional response to serious and organised crime – 14 May 2024

This inspection examined how well police forces tackle serious and organised crime in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia and West Midlands.

An inspection of the north-west regional response to serious and organised crime – 10 November 2023

This inspection examined how well police forces tackle serious and organised crime in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and North Wales.

An inspection of the London regional response to serious and organised crime – 19 May 2023

An inspection of the eastern regional response to serious and organised crime – 19 May 2023

An inspection of the east midlands regional response to serious and organised crime – 2 March 2023

This inspection examined how well police forces tackle serious and organised crime in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.

An inspection of the north-east regional response to serious and organised crime – 7 December 2022

This inspection examined how well police forces tackle serious and organised crime in Cleveland, Durham, and Northumbria.

Pre-2022 reports

Regional Organised Crime Units – An inspection of the effectiveness of the Regional Organised Crime Units – February 2021

In this inspection, we examined how effectively and efficiently ROCUs tackle the threat from SOC.

Regional organised crime units – A review of capability and effectiveness – December 2015

This report examined the capabilities and effectiveness of ROCUs in tackling serious and organised crime.