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Winter 2002: Comparative Approaches On The Police In Europe
National Polices and European Integration, Stakes and Interactions. Introductory Remark (PDF, 10 pages, 35.6 KB) , by René LEVY & Dominique Monjardet
The two authors of this contribution offer a state of the existing literature on the police and highlight the fact that the analysis on the interaction of national police logic, historical trajectory and international co-operation procedures has still not been explored enough. According to them, this is to do. The authors ask necessary questions for the establishment of a meticulous analysis of these interactions by detailing the effects these co-operations have on the organisation of the police, their techniques and know-how as well as the effect on the police staff in terms of their imaginary and demands.
International police co-operation has brought up two basic forms of institutionalisation: On the one hand Europol, Interpol and other co-operation circles of the criminal police which are relatively far away from daily policing in the member states, and on the other hand, various forms of co-operation in the border regions. These two basic forms of co-operation are elements of a specific administrative and political form of multi-level governance: national and regional administrations and politics are influencing International co-operation. And, the other way round, international co-operation has a number of impacts on national, regional and even local policing. Co-operation has for example contributed to the centralisation of policing, it has enlarged police autonomy in relation to criminal justice and it has contributed to the dissemination of undercover policing.
Trans-Boundary Police Cooperation - a Force for Transformation in the French Security Apparatus (PDF, 25 pages, 71.1 KB) , by Azilis Maguer
The European police and custom co-operation is based on multilateral and bilateral legal tools. The most recent ones (the convention for implementation of the Schengen agreements, the 1997 German-French agreement of Mondorf-les-bains, and the further bilateral agreements made on the base of the latter) have made out of the police co-operation in internal border regions a place of very intense interactions between a large number of national actors and control systems. In this daily face-to-face, the professional transactions between foreign police actors tend to modify roles as well as ways and priorities of intervention for regional and central police services. The detailed analysis of cross-influences of laws and parameters of police action at the German-French border allows drafting some hypotheses on the transformations underway in the French national security system.
Overview of the Development of Police Forces in Europe: the Repercussions of the Europeanization of the British Police (PDF, 23 pages, 71.2 KB) , by Paul Swallow
This paper describes the parochially led growth of the British policing system from its beginnings in the early part of the 19th century until today. It discusses the inception of police co-ordinating and representative bodies at the national level, and outlines their respective present-day roles. This is followed by a description from a British perspective of the development of international organisations intended to facilitate and co-ordinate cross border police activities within Europe. Starting with Interpol in the early part of the 20th century, the paper addresses the problems inherent in that organisation which led to the later establishment of bodies such as the Trevi Group and Europol. Finally the paper links these two sections by examining the influences that increasing Europeanization of policing is having upon the British police service, particularly the increasing importance of national bodies and the 'convergence' that is taking place between policing bodies with similar roles.
The Problem of Accountability and of Police Action in All of its Aspects. Towards General Cartography of Police Accountability in the Post-Modern Era (PDF, 26 pages, 75.4 KB) , by James Sheptycki
This paper systematically surveys this policing field with a view to spotlighting the difficulties in conceiving an accountability framework for policing, transnational and otherwise. It argues that policing is no longer a set of practices embedded in the sovereign nation-state, but has rather become transnationalised and greatly differentiated. Symptomatic of the post-modern condition, the policing field is a fragmented terrain. Its complexity poses acute accountability problems that cannot easily be answered by reference to traditional models of constitutional control.
The Genealogy of the Police (PDF, 24 pages, 73.3 KB) , by Hélène L'Heuillet
The author intends to explain why the police have become a major political resort by historically analysing the police through Foucault's genealogical method. She goes back to the origins of modern police, a French invention, and shows how it has become a political tool exporting as much as it develops around a model allying discipline, rules and the logic of surveillance. Far from exhibiting whatsoever hidden face of the police, the author shows how it has inaugurated a new style political tradition, within the state of territory but at the service of the state of population (Foucault).