As part of the measures outlined by the European Commission in the Eleventh progress report towards an effective and genuine Security Union to address the role of encryption in criminal investigations, Europol, in cooperation with Eurojust has established an observatory function to engage in a forward-looking analysis with respect to encryption. This is the first report published as part of the observatory function and has as its primary objective to provide an overview of the state of play. The purpose of the observatory function is to inform; to provide a useful and balanced resource for future decision-making, approached from a law enforcement and prosecutorial perspective.