International Police Cooperation

“International cooperation among police takes on the form of limited collaboration surrounding specific cases, such as the international rendition of fugitives from justice, but has also been organized on a permanent basis in formally structured international police organizations.”(1)

“Law enforcement institutions around the world “will prefer to engage in unilaterally enacted transnational activities, most typically through a system of international liaisons stationed in foreign countries. Unilaterally planned international operations are not always possible because police agencies may lack necessary personnel and means. The police institutions of more powerful nations are at a considerable advantage in this respect. … international cooperation among police will typically take place in a bilateral form, between the police of two nations, especially between agencies close in social distance, and will be maintained only on a temporary basis for a specific inquiry or investigation, rather than permanently structured. …. even in the case of the formation of cooperation initiatives with wide multilateral appeal, such as Interpol, national persistence in international police work is revealed in the fact that multilateral cooperation among police is of a collaborative nature that does not involve the formation of a supranational police force. The idea of a supranational police force clashes with conceptions of state sovereignty and police autonomy, whereas a collaborative network among police of different nations can bring about the advantages of international cooperation.”(2) “International law enforce organizations try in consecuence to “establish a system of collaboration to facilitate communication and information exchange among the police of various nations by a variety of means, such as regular meetings, systems of communication, and other institutions of cooperation, such as a central headquarters through which information can be routed. The police agencies of national states are thereby affirmed as the partners of cooperation.”(3)

Notes

1. Deflem, Mathieu. 2010. “Police and Counter-Terrorism: A Sociological Theory of International Cooperation.” Pp. 163-172 in Emerging Transnational (In)security Governance: A Statist-Transnationalist Approach, edited by Ersel Aydinli. London: Routledge.
2. Id.
3. Id.