The author concludes that the best opportunity for improving international police cooperation is within established "specialized" areas of policing, such as criminalistics, hostage negotiations, homicide investigations, canine handling, communications, and patrol, just to name a few. Of these specialized areas, basic recruit training offers the best immediate results, because it cuts across all of what new officers are taught to do. There are four conditions that facilitate successful international cooperative police relationships: a perception of a serious crime problems shared by all of the participating parties; the involvement of experienced career law enforcement personnel who help define the problem and propose practical solutions; the involvement of political officials who formulate, enact, and defend enabling laws and budgetary support; and regular communication between law enforcement professionals and political officials throughout the whole process. Some obstacles to cooperation are political influences in the various countries that include rivalries between countries, as well as the lack of communication between law enforcement professionals and political officials across national borders. 18 notes
International Police Cooperation: Opportunities and Obstacles (From Policing in Central and Eastern Europe: Comparing Firsthand Knowledge With Experience From the West, P 63-74, 1996, Milan Pagon, ed. -- See NCJ-170291)
NCJ Number
170297
Date Published
1996
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses why it is especially important today that police agencies and theorists cooperate across national borders, the special conditions that support improving international police cooperation, some of the basic obstacles to improved cooperation, and the ways that international police cooperation likely will develop in the immediate future.
Abstract