Piece after piece: getting the big picture

11 August 2022. Night-time in Nuglar, a village in the north-eastern most tip of the Solothurn Jura. The streets are quiet when suddenly there is a deafening bang. An ATM has exploded. The perpetrators are quick and make their getaway with the loot within a few minutes. One of many ATM bombings last year. And the investigators at the scene knew that it wouldn’t be the last one.

They searched for clues in the rubble: what was used to blow up the ATM - explosives? Gas? Which ATM model was it? They carefully analysed the images from the surveillance cameras: how did the perpetrators go about it? How many were there? What did they look like? How did they get away? Where did they go? And, how much money was stolen? Had the ATM recently been filled? Had there been other attacks in the region? Were there any recognisable connections?

 The investigators put together the puzzle of this attack piece by piece. And, as with any difficult puzzle, you need at least one corner and one edge to get your bearings. In this case: the perpetrators had used explosives and fled on a motorcycle. This resembled some other ATM bombings that same year, revealing a pattern. Were the same perpetrators involved in different ATM bombings?

 'The situation determines what has to be done' is a well-known expression in the police. It is not just an empty phrase. A ‘police situation’ is a dynamic instrument. It develops as all the available information is systematically collected, analysed and evaluated. The resulting overall picture allows the police to devise an effective strategy to combat the crime at hand. Without information, there is no overview of the situation; without an overview of the situation, the police lack crucial information to use their resources effectively.

This is where fedpol comes in. As an information hub, we analyse the information at hand, exchange it with partner authorities, use it to create an overview of the situation and, as the federal criminal police, coordinate the investigations on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland. The overview of the situation is in turn shared with cantonal and foreign law enforcement agencies. When the police know what the police know, they can act effectively and identify the perpetrators.

There is not just one type of police situation. Police situations take many forms: the ATM burglaries already mentioned; the radicalisation of violent religious or political extremists and terrorist-motivated acts; threats against federal councillors; internationally organised drug traffickers with almost unlimited financial resources; and a messenger service for criminals that revealed a mind-boggling network of organised crime in Switzerland. These and more were characteristic of 2022.

The various pieces of the puzzle pile up. Putting them together requires resources, which is a scarce commodity in the police world. Only those who have an overview of the situation can use resources in a targeted and effective way; in other words, they can put the puzzle together systematically and efficiently. And who knows, maybe tomorrow it will become clear that the puzzle as it presents itself to us today is only one piece of yet a bigger picture. The new overview of the situation will then determine the mission. Our mission.

Our annual report gives you a piece of the puzzle put together by the police in 2022. Dive in - I wish you an exciting read!

Nicoletta della Valle, Director