Cognyte Software Ltd. (“Cognyte”), a global leader in investigative analytics software, released the results of a new survey of European law enforcement agency (LEA) professionals providing insights into the challenges, emerging trends and priorities that will shape investigative and intelligence initiatives in the year ahead.

69% of respondents reported an increase over the past two years in collaboration between criminal groups and terrorist organizations.

Criminal and terror networks have become increasingly sophisticated, transnational and deeply embedded across multiple domains. As these groups evolve, the demands placed on the agencies responsible for investigating them grow accordingly. Cognyte’s new research – European Law Enforcement in 2026: Findings from a Survey of European Agencies – offers a unique view of the current state of law enforcement and sheds light on how European LEAs expect technology to impact their strategies and capabilities in 2026.

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Key findings from the survey data include:

Crime–terror convergence is accelerating and reshaping the threat landscape. 69% of respondents reported an increase over the past two years in collaboration between criminal groups and terrorist organizations. This convergence manifests in shared trafficking routes (39%), criminals conducting attacks on behalf of terrorist groups (21%) and money laundering operations (19%). It’s a dangerous shift: terrorist networks can plug into existing criminal ecosystems without needing to build their own infrastructure from scratch.

Cross-border crime threats and entry points are diverse, increasing complexity. Across Europe, drug trafficking is most cited as a cross-border criminal threat (51%), followed by weapons trafficking (46%) and illegal migrant smuggling (42%), with wide variance by region. These crimes exploit multiple entry points, with shipping ports (28%), land borders (20%) and postal systems (15%) being the most targeted. This results in a fragmented landscape with complex threats arrayed across air, land and sea.

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The real burden isn’t more cases: it’s more complex ones. While 65% of respondents reported rising caseloads, the predominant pressure point is not volume, it’s case complexity. Investigations today are more complex than ever. Use of encrypted communications by criminals (48%), the need for financial and crypto expertise (48%) and a growing number of data sources per case (46%) are all reported as factors that increase the burden on investigators.

Traditional SIGINT solutions are no longer enough, and analytics gaps are slowing down investigations. Obtaining actionable intelligence from traditional SIGINT solutions has become significantly more difficult, fueling demand for advanced SIGINT solutions that meet today’s data encryption challenges. LEAs are also prioritizing the ability to enrich SIGINT with OSINT, digital forensics and crypto data. Additionally, agencies report significant gaps in their analytics and AI capabilities, including video analytics (48%), digital forensics correlation (45%) and social media analysis (39%). On average, investigative teams estimate that 25% of their time is lost due to inadequate capabilities.