The Politicization Of Police Stops In Europe

This book examines the timely issue of police stops as a public and political issue, focussing on the European states. Contrary to much other work it focuses on wider Europe and the social and political context in which the police practice of stopping citizens emerges, develops and can be curtailed. More specifically, the volume analyses public controversies about police stops, i.e. events in which conflicts emerge about how the performance of police stops is explained and justified. This book stems from an EU COST Action research network on Police Stops which engages academics and practitioners from 29 countries. It appeals to those in law, criminology and policing studies with some potential for wider interest in cultural studies/history and public policy/politics, as well as to practitioners in police scrutiny, oversight and other professional bodies and in training organisations.

This book takes a critical and comparative approach to the analysis of the governance of police stops across Europe. It draws on an EU COST Action research network on Police Stops which engaged academics and practitioners from 29 countries to better understand the practice of police stops. It begins by examining how police stops are defined and the various legal rules and levels of accountability afforded. The chapters are arranged by theme to focus on a core aspect of the governance of police stops. These include: legal frameworks and police discretion; internal governance; external accountability and civilian oversight; possibilities for legal recourse; and the different roles of data and technology. Each compares the distinct approaches evident across Europe, often employing case studies. The book adopts a critical approach, acknowledging governance as contested and involving diverse (state, non-state and supranational) actors. It considers implications for policing in a rapidly changing environment globally.

Understanding the politics of security in city-regions is increasingly important for the study of contemporary policing. This book argues that national and international governing arrangements are being outflanked by various transnational threats, including the cross-border terrorism of the attacks on Paris in 2015 and Brussels in 2016; trafficking in people, narcotics and armaments; cybercrime; the deregulation of global financial services; and environmental crime. Metropolises are the focal points of the transnational networks through which policing problems are exported and imported across national borders, as they provide much of the demand for illicit markets and are the principal engines generating other policing challenges including political protest and civil unrest. This edited collection examines whether and how governing arrangements rooted in older systems of national sovereignty are adapting to these transnational challenges, and considers problems of and for policing in city-regions in the European Union and its single market. Bringing together experts from across the continent, Policing European Metropolises develops a sociology of urban policing in Europe and a unique methodology for comparing the experiences of different metropolises in the same country. This book will be of value to police researchers in Europe and abroad, as well as postgraduate students with an interest in policing and urban policy.

Will the European Union soon have a policing agency similar to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation? John Occhipinti traces the evolution of the European Police Office (Europol), bringing to life themes key to the study of European integration such as: the tension between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism; concerns over the democratic deficit in the EU; and the impact of enlargement.

Originally published in 1985, Police and Public Order in Europe examines the development of the police in Western Europe and considers how police functions have changed over time. Each contributor looks at the experience of one country while having regard to the practices of the other countries. The role of the police in maintaining public order had become increasingly important in the early 1980s. The activities of terrorists from both Left and Right in Italy, Spain and West Germany and the IRA in Great Britain had long been a focus of attention. However, in many ways a more disturbing phenomenon was the increase in the general level of popular unrest which had produced considerable rioting and looting in British cities as well as often violent confrontation between the police and an increasing range of protesters in other European countries. These events received wide media coverage at the time and the issue of public order was one of growing concern for governments, the police and the public. The role of the police in Western Europe was now firmly political.

This collection of essays examines the growth of professionalization in national police forces in England, France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Particular emphasis is placed on the expansion and development of police forces and the effect of this development on organization and strategy. By examining the police in five societies, the authors provide valuable analyses of the ways police forces differ, how they approach their tasks, and how they view themselves.

What does it take to reform a post-Soviet police force? This book explores the conditions in which a meaningful transformation of the police is likely to succeed and when it will fail. Based on the analysis of five post-Soviet countries that have officially embarked on police reform efforts, Erica Marat examines various pathways to transforming how the state relates to society through policing.

The police can be seen as a governmental institution or as an organizational body, where especially the work - effectiveness, or fairness in encounters - is valued. Through the combination of these approaches and the inclusion of social trust and criminal victimization, Silvia Staubli offers an understanding beyond existing literature on institutional trust and procedural fairness. Moreover, due to analyses for Eastern and Western Europe, she addresses experts from sociology, political science, criminology, and social anthropology equally. Beyond, the study offers an insight to the public on how public opinions towards institutions are shaped.

The role of the police has, from its beginnings, been ambiguous, even janus-faced. This volume focuses on one of its controversial aspects by showing how the police have been utilized in the past by regimes in Europe, the USA and the British Empire to check political dissent and social unrest. Ideologies such as anti-Communism emerge as significant influences in both democracies and dictatorships. And by shedding new light on policing continuities in twentieth-century Germany and Italy, as well as Interpol, this volume questions the compatibility of democratic government and political policing.