Law Enforcement Cooperation Program
The Australian Federal Police's Law Enforcement Cooperation Program (LECP) plays a vital role in assisting foreign law enforcement agencies to deal with transnational crime.
The Program was established in 1997 and funded from allocations within the National Illicit Drugs Strategy.
The focus of the LECP was initially on cooperative law enforcement initiatives within the Asia/Pacific Region. The program continued to grow and in response to the recorded successes of a number of projects, the AFP acquired additional funding from both Melanesia and People Smuggling New Policy Initiatives (NPIs) to expand the LECP to look at transnational crime issues across the globe.
The LECP supports AFP efforts offshore through bilateral and multilateral projects aimed at:
- Strengthening the capability of foreign law enforcement agencies to gather information and evidence against illicit drug traffickers through modest education and training programs for the practitioner, and modest provisions of equipment;
- Developing a greater capacity to meet Australia’s international priorities by being able to more effectively gather international law enforcement intelligence to support AFP operations;
- Improving law enforcement infrastructure of foreign law enforcement agencies;
- Improving operational understanding dealing with international crime; and
- Fostering closer personal and institutional linkages.
NPI funding for the LECP ceased in FY 2008-2009, however in recognition of the ongoing success of the program and the support it provides to efforts of the AFP International Network, a decision was made to continue the LECP under existing AFP allocations in the Border and International portfolio.