JJUA54067U International Police Cooperation

Today, national police forces do not only operate within the national boundaries. National police forces engage in transnational police cooperation, formalized in organs such as Interpol, Europol and the Schengen-cooperation where novelties are invariably introduced (to the joint analysis duties have, for instance, been added joint investigation duties), and competences and procedures for police cooperation are constantly changed in order to facilitate an ever closer cooperation (e.g. by the Lisbon Treaty and the Stockholm Programme). National police forces also engage in “remote policing” in weak, or failing, states where their transnational duties include humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, peace enforcement, technical assistance and training, capacity-building and development assistance. Police from all over the world participate in UN-led missions, and police from Europe also participate in EU-led missions, such as EUPOL KINSHASA or EUPOL AFGHANISTAN. The so-called securitization research has drawn attention to the fact that once the police were responsible for the internal security and the military for the external security. But today also these boundaries between police and military are rapidly blurring. Internally, it is quite common to impose on the military duties in countering terrorism and serious organised crime (such as proliferation), and externally the armed forces are dispatched with police duties and police equipment. It has, therefore, become difficult, if not to say impossible, to distinguish remote policing from military operations out of area.
Remote policing is global in its scope. The same goes for the security guard companies and agencies which are international business companies, offering maintenance of safety, security, peace and order as a commodity under the economic terms of the Market, thus challenging the traditional boundaries between public and private policing.

In the course these recent trends in policing are analysed from a legal perspective. The phenomena are global but the focus will mainly be European.

1. Introduction. European police history
2. Danish police and transnational policing
3. Coercive police powers from a Human Rights perspective
4. Transnational protest. Riots and bans on masks
5. Excursion to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service
6. Interpol. Europol - from Convention to Council Decision
7. The Schengen-acquis. Prüm. Frontex
8. European Gendarmeries
9. Remote policing
10. Securitization
11. Private policing
12. Q&A session