Market-Oriented Explanation of the Expansion of the Role of Europol: Filling the Demand for Criminal Intelligence Through Entrepreneurial Initiatives (From International Police Cooperation: Emerging Issues, Theory and Practice, P 62-78, 2010, Frederic Lemieux, ed. - See NCJ-230937)

• NCJ Number: 230940
• Author(s): Nadia Gerspacher; Frederic Lemieux
• Date Published: 2010
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter examines how Europol operates in an environment of overlapping information exchange systems with several technological means aimed at enhancing cooperation.

Abstract

Europol was created in 1992 to facilitate cooperation between police services in the fight against drug trafficking only. Since 2000, however, Europol has fostered the exchange of information, performed analyses, and coordinated joint investigations in 18 international crime areas. The wider field of Europol's activities suggests that it has begun to resemble an international intelligence police entity more than a facilitator of information sharing. The chapter describes how Europol is increasingly mobilizing its informal networks in order to influence the way member states exchange information, engage in joint activities, and contribute to the harmonization of the legal framework of international police cooperation and the standardization of information exchange processes. Throughout the chapter, the authors argue that there have been significant changes in Europol's activities that have enabled it to have a more active role in facilitating international police cooperation. The authors make the case for expanding Europol's role by showing the lack of capacity of member states to implement a national system that is conducive to the participation of police services at an international level and engage in information exchange with operational implications. The impacts of these initiatives lead to the ability of an international organization to establish norms and standards in judicial matters (joint investigations); intervene in member states by targeting individual suspected perpetrators through operational analyses, thus circumventing the principles of sovereignty and subsidiarity; and establish new channels of communication that expand the information flow between members states. The chapter's conclusions are based on first-hand information and observations at the Europol Secretariat. 9 notes