Law Enforcement

Police in Other Countries (other than the U.S)

Introduction to Law Enforcement

About 800 police forces operated in Canada in 2002. Their operations resemble those of the United Kingdom and the United States. Two provinces, Québec and Ontario, have provincial police with general law enforcement responsibilities. In the other provinces, rural policing is assumed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Most European countries have police forces that are organized on a national basis. Policing in France, for example, is primarily the responsibility of two national law enforcement bodies: the Gendarmerie Nationale, which polices rural areas and small towns, and the Police Nationale, which is responsible for policing Paris and provincial urban jurisdictions with populations of more than 10,000. The French police system has influenced other countries, especially those that were formerly part of the French colonial empire.

After World War II, the Allied occupational forces introduced the British-American style of decentralized police forces to West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany), partly to prevent a return to a national military force. The experiment was not totally successful, however, and a compromise currently exists between a national force and decentralization. Germany is organized into semiautonomous provinces or states, each with its own independently elected state government, judiciary, and police. There is also a federal investigative bureau, the Bundeskriminalamt, which is renowned for its sophisticated computerized records system and technology.

In the Middle East, Israel has a single national police force that has been patterned after elements of the British Palestine Police. Following independence in 1948, attempts were made to demilitarize the force, but recurrent conflicts with neighboring Arab states have compelled the police to maintain security against terrorist actions, as well as carrying on the usual law enforcement activities. The battle-hardened Israeli police have developed highly effective investigative methods and technical capabilities.

Little is known about the operation or organization of the police in Communist nations, as details of the system are generally kept secret.

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) was established after World War II, with headquarters in Paris. Interpol does not conduct worldwide criminal investigations; rather, it is a records clearinghouse that serves as a means of communicating information from the police of one country to those of another. The majority of nations, including all major Western powers, are members of Interpol.” (1)

Covert Law Enforcement Operations

This section involves the study of the use of covert law enforcement tactics. The increasing sophistication of organised crime and the growth in the digital intelligence and investigations environments requires a professional approach towards the deployment of covert tactics.

External scrutiny in relation to surveillance and human rights requires law enforcement agencies to have a clear appreciation of their obligations in term of justification, proportionality and necessity when using covert tactics to ensure public confidence is maintained and criminal justice outcomes are not compromised.

The range of covert options in the human, technical, surveillance, open source, cyber/digital and communications data environments will be explored. The need for clear aims and objectives and a defined set of strategies to manage operational activity, covert collection and intelligence management along with operational security will be explained.

Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS)

Law enforcement officials are taught to understand and then apply techniques such as, the management of such sources, the ethical legal moral etc. issues. They are taught how to successfully recruit CHIS, team selection, infiltration, operational security, risk assessment, the use of targeted recruitment teams and legal participation of these when operating under very strict judicial scrutiny.

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Introduction

Law Enforcement

This entry provides an overview of the legal framework of law enforcement, with a description of the most significant features of law enforcement at international level.

Related Work and Conclusions

Resources

See Also

References (Papers)

• Improving The Criminal Justice System’s Response To Victimization Of Persons With Disabilities, James C. Backstrom, Oct 2017
• Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Professor Destiny Peery, Oct 2017
• Building Movement: Racial Injustice, Transformative Justice And Reimagined Policing, Oct 2017
• Federal Law Enforcement: Law Enforcement As Political Question, Zachary S. Price, Sep 2017
• Trigger Crimes & Social Progress: The Tragedy-Outrage-Reform Dynamic In America, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson, Aug 2017
• Democratizing Criminal Law As An Abolitionist Project, Dorothy E. Roberts, Aug 2017

Resources

Notes and References

1. Information about Law Enforcement in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

See also

Crime; Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure; Criminology; Penology; Police Power; Prison; Secret Police.

Guide to Law Enforcement