Part V Procedural and Technological Challenges for the Investigation of TOC—Policing, Technological Aspects, Efficiency, Exchange of Information, Abuse of Power, and Tactics for Conducting Investigations, 23 Policing Transnational Organised Crime—The International Perspective

Abstract

This chapter examines international cooperation in the fight against transnational organised crime (TOC). As main thesis it claims that within the area of law enforcement in general and international law enforcement in particular, an epistemological rupture has changed the way we think about law enforcement. First, the chapter looks at the institutions involved in the fight: it asks ‘who’? The second part asks ‘what’ do law enforcement agencies do to counter the activities of TOC? The third part picks up the claim of an epistemological rupture, identifies this in the ever-increasing use of bulk or random data, and presents some arguments for using such methods and some—based on privacy rights—for not using them. This part deplores the militarization of law enforcement and the blurring of the boundary between law enforcement and the security services, which, it postulates, leads to law enforcement being alienated from the populations it serves.