Review Article Volume - 4 Issue - 5 September 2017 DOI: 10.19080/JFSCI.2017.04.555652 J Forensic Sci & Criminal Inves Copyright © All rights are reserved by Ksenija Butorac Active Search for Perpetrators of Most Serious Criminal Offences - the Croatian Model Goran Žaja 1 , Dean Savić 2 , Marijo Rošić 3 and KSenija Butorac 4 * 1 Head of the Fugitive Unit - FAST Croatia, Special Criminal Investigations Department, Europe 2 Head of the Organized Crime Department, Police National Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime, Europe 3 Head of the International Police Cooperation Department, Criminal Police Directorate, Europe 4 Police College, Ministry of the Interior, Europe Submission: September 01, 2017; Published: September 11, 2017 *Corresponding author: Ksenija Butorac, Associate Professor, Police College, Ministry of the Interior, Zagreb 10000, Croatia, European Union, Europe, Email: J Forensic Sci & Criminal Inves 4(5): JFSCI.MS.ID.555652 (2017) 001 Introduction Open borders, liberal control regime and science and technology development allow for quick flow of people, goods and capital. Such circumstances also favor crime mobility, which hinders undertaking of fugitive active search measures. Favorable conditions regarding freedom of movement facilitate achievement of criminal goals for individuals and organized crime groups, as well as allow them to achieve maximum illegal gain. One of the consequences of such situation is an increase of the number of criminal proceedings which have been conducted in absentia of accused persons. Thanks to the aforementioned conditions, perpetrators of criminal offences easily change home addresses and thus areas of operation. Likewise, after committing a criminal offence, their crossing from one country to another is facilitated. This significantly hinders their identification, location and arrest, making this one of more important reasons why an increasing number of perpetrators at large is being registered. Therefore, the number of issued warrants is also growing, as well as the number of initiated or finished criminal proceedings with the accused in absentia. On the other hand, activities related to locating fugitives have not always been on a level that was wanted. Some of the reasons for reduced efficiency were the result of obstacles due to inadequate legal and financial frameworks. To deal with these obstacles, a full set of international and national legal acts was adopted. Following this, rising number of countries began forming various forms of specialised units that, among other things, deal with target searches for perpetrators of criminal offences. Activities of those units hold a significant place in combating crime. Searching for fugitives is a complex operational process which requires implementation of a number of measures and actions, especially for cases when a search is performed in several countries. Special investigation techniques may be used for this. Regarding this, it is necessary to react to changes in modus operandi of fugitives or persons preparing to flee, both on operational and normative level. This includes Abstract Number of cases in which search for perpetrators is conducted is on the rise. Conditions in which borders are open and free flow of people, goods and capital is allowed are favored by fugitives. They keep up with the times and keep track of new developments in technology. This requires adaptation of work methodology of competent services whose search for the perpetrators of criminal offences represents one of their fundamental obligations. When doing so, it is necessary to acquire new knowledge and develop tactical, technical and human capacities in a timely matter. Croatian police follows current trends and is on a good path to satisfy actual needs and to achieve maximum success in the area of active search for perpetrators of most serious criminal offences. The Fugitives Unit was founded in 2008 - a unit dedicated to search for fugitives and which operates within the Police National Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime. Since 2012, the SIReNE Section has been operational within the International Police Cooperation Service of the Criminal Police Directorate 1 as the central point for searches in cases where the SIS II System is used. Since 27th June 2017, all searches in the second-generation Schengen Information System (SIS. II) of the Schengen Area member countries have been available to the Republic of Croatia. Since that day Croatian authorities have also had the possibility of issuing their own searches within the SIS II System. Complementary work of the Fugitives Unit and the SIReNE Section created the preconditions for quality and coordinated proceedings when undertaking measures for fugitive active search. Keywords: Fast; Enfast; Interpol; Sirene; International search; Fugitive active search