Cross-border Police Cooperation Research Articles

Cross-Border Police Cooperation and ‘Secondary Movements’. On Reconfigurations in Enforcing Differential Mobility Rights within the Spatial-Legal Schengen Space

Since 2015 hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos, many fleeing war and poverty, others hoping to find work in Europe and give their children a better future. The arrival of migrants on Lesbos was accompanied by an influx of ‘humanitarian pilgrims’: hordes of journalists, celebrities, academic researchers and volunteers for diverse NGOs. Because the migrants arrived in such large numbers in 2015, they became part of the daily reality of both the local residents and officials at different levels of authority, from local municipalities to EU representatives. The migrants’ arrival on the island was presented in the media both as a historic event and an urgent public problem. The term ‘refugee crisis’ was born. Although its importance and urgency was widely recognized by policymakers, the inability of European and local institutions to manage the influx of migrants in this time of crisis soon became obvious. This ‘unmanageable’ situation, which demanded quick and creative solutions, involved responding to the suffering of the migrants who needed ‘to be managed’, and appealing to the local people’s solidarity and hospitality. The announcement that hundreds of thousands of refugees were arriving on the shores of Greece came at a time when the country was facing severe political and economic problems. The question is when is something ‘announced’ as a crisis and by whom, and which parties define and create a specific public problem and also suggest solutions and remedies. Based on an empirical case study in Greece, this contribution reflects on the concept of ‘Crisis’ from an interdisciplinary perspective, including a historical, philosophical and sociological understanding of its use in the refugee context.

Az Egyedüli Kapcsolattartási Pont és a Közös Kapcsolattartási Szolgálati Hely által foganatosított információcserét befolyásoló környezeti tényezők

Cross-border criminality, emerging hybrid security threats demand efficient cross-border police cooperation and information exchange. To answer this need, various communication channels have been established to facilitate trans-border law-enforcement information exchange. The aim of this paper is to introduce the supporting and hindering factors of the two, most commonly used police information exchange channels, namely the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) and the Police and Customs Cooperation Centre (PCCC). The author tried to achieve this goal by introducing the relevant scientific theories and using them as a starting point for a qualitative study. The subsequent desk research and indepth interviews helped the researcher to describe the current information exchange process, the hindering and supporting factors, the characteristics and main differences of the SPOC and the PCCC information exchange processes. Arrived: 3 June 2020Accepted: 8 July 2020

Liechtenstein’s Security Constitution

This article outlines Liechtenstein’s security constitution. First, special challenges of the state task of security are presented. Particular attention is paid to those threats that are of special importance in the microstate of Liechtenstein. As Liechtenstein has outsourced many tasks in the area of security to Switzerland and Austria, the state monopoly on violence, which is required of sovereign states, must be analysed. Various types of treaties by which Liechtenstein secures the support of its neighbouring states and the joint use of their facilities are presented therefore. In particular, the Customs Union Treaty of 1923 with Switzerland, obligations to provide mutual assistance as well as the treaties on cross-border police cooperation and on the joint use of Austrian prisons are analysed in more detail. In addition, under the title “incorporation”, the appointment of judges and policemen and policewomen with foreign nationality and the accession of foreign police units are discussed.

Cross Border Police Cooperation on the Island of Ireland Post-Brexit

The UK withdrawal from the EU has profound consequences for criminal justice and policing. This working paper explores these consequences in the specific context of police cooperation on the island of Ireland. For political, historical, cultural and geographic reasons, police cooperation on the island is simultaneously essential, sensitive and challenging. Here I examine how that police cooperation has operated to date and what the impact of Brexit is likely to be on that cooperation, focusing on mechanisms at risk, potential impacts on criminality and the consequences for crime levels, investigation and detection.

The need for the Netherlands and Belgium to further integrate police cooperation

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the possibilities for improvement of bilateral police cooperation between Belgium and the Netherlands within the existing Benelux Police Treaty. Practical examples show there is a great deal of need in day-to-day police practice to further integrate police cooperation. Although a great deal is already possible on the grounds of the 2004 Senningen Treaty and the subsequent Prüm Convention, there is still a lack of broader authorizations, primarily in the area of cross-border criminal investigation. Since the Benelux Police Treaty will be revised in 2017, the sphere of operation can be expanded. This study shows that it is the intention of the Belgian as well as the Dutch authorities to achieve significant progress. Recommendations in the context of the treaty revision include scrapping small-scale police assistance in minor offences and mutual access to police registers and judicial documentation. In the future, Belgium and the Netherlands can draw up joint objectives on the basis of each side’s crime problems. Examples are joint analyses in areas such as border zone drug criminals, terrorism, mobile banditry or cocaine smuggling. The treaty revision referred to appears to be the perfect opportunity for both countries to find the limits and to take a truly innovative step in cross border police cooperation in Europe.

Cross-Border Criminal Investigation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion: International Policing and the Theory of (inter-) Organisational Conflict

This article presents findings of the research by Nelen, Peters and Vanderhallen (2013b) regarding cross-border police cooperation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. These findings are scrutinised in light of the conceptual framework of inter-organisational conflict (Scott, Austral Social Work 58:132–141, 2005) to provide an enhanced and more in-depth analysis of the possibilities and difficulties in international police cooperation. Potential conflict between cooperating organisations is identified by five levels of analysis: (i) inter-organisational; (ii) intra-organisational; (iii) inter-professional; (iv) interpersonal and (v) intra-personal. Obstacles for international police cooperation are mainly found at the inter-organisational level and interpersonal level. Particularly, the Euroregional police organisations and their case management systems are ill attuned, creating conflict in cooperation. The article concludes with the potential benefits for further police cooperation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion which are identified through the analysis and provides feedback on the conceptual framework.

Police Cooperation across the Irish Border: Familiarity Breeding Contempt for Transparency and Accountability

This article critically examines the practice, methods, and regulation of cross‐border police cooperation between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Despite legal and political divisions, police cooperation has survived and flourished in recent years especially among police officers on the ground. By comparison, the development of transparent regulatory and accountability structures and processes has been disappointing. While there have been domestic initiatives at the intergovernmental and legislative levels, these have tended to emphasize the centrality of direct engagement between the police chiefs and senior civil servants at the expense of formal transparent procedures. EU instruments have been marginalized as the police forces and their administrations prefer informal networks and force‐to‐force agreements which, it is argued, shield cross‐border police cooperation from standards of transparency, oversight, and accountability which are essential to its legitimacy. They also highlight the limitations of the current EU legislative approach to cross‐border police cooperation.

Policing the Caribbean: Transnational Security Cooperation in Practice. By Ben Bowling (New York, NY: Oxford University Press Inc., 2010, 350pp. 60.00 hb)

The globalization of crime has called forth a criminal justice response that is aptly characterized by the popular catchphrase ‘transnational policing’. Transnational policing embodies an array of activities including cross-border police cooperation in investigations and tactical operations, intelligence sharing, training and the dispensing of donor aid, all of which constitute an increasingly noticeable aspect of Caribbean criminal justice administration. In his book, Policing the Caribbean: Transnational Security Cooperation in Practice, Ben Bowling focuses on this important and still evolving topic by highlighting the numerous developments in transnational policing in the Anglophone Caribbean. He examines the development of transnational policing in this region from early attempts by colonial authorities to foster inter-island police collaboration to the more contemporary multiagency and multijurisdictional arrangements to advance a regional security agenda. A prolific scholar of Caribbean criminology, Bowling has produced several works on policing and other criminal justice issues in the region. In his current work, Bowling describes the emergence of a new policing paradigm that is continuously influenced, not only by security threats posed by the transnational drug trade and the presence of organized criminal networks, but also by rapid developments in technology, communications, and regional and international travel. Even though the bulk of police work takes place in villages and towns, the main focus of the book is on ‘policing practices that look beyond the boundaries of the Caribbean nation state’ (p. 22). Drawing primarily on information gleaned during numerous interviews with high-level security officials and ground-level practitioners, the author provides a convincing account of how the security of the small, vulnerable island nations of the Caribbean may be impacted by transnational crime, particularly drug trafficking, as well as non-traditional security problems such as environmental disasters and socio-political and economic developments (pp. 39–41). In terms of how these threats are managed, the numerous excerpts of interviews cited throughout the book permit rare insights into various approaches and personal and institutional challenges encountered by practitioners in the quest to coordinate effective response mechanisms.