This research examines the European intelligence agency, Europol. It looks at the application of the centralized mode of information exchange to the information and intelligence exchange process between Europol and member states. The data gathered shows whether this agency is the most appropriate mode of data collection, or whether another model should have been adopted.

Since the early 1990s, cross-border police and judicial cooperation has become a very important domain of the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty – if accepted by all the Member States – will certainly be a major stimulus to its further development in the field of internal security as well as in the field of external policy. In any event, the recent proposal for a new third comprehensive policy programme with regard to the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice – the so-called Stockholm Programme – foreshadows some of the changes the Brussels institutions and the Member States would like to embrace in the coming years. This book contains the contributions of scholars and practitioners to a conference on the future of police and judicial cooperation in the European Union that took place in November 2008 at Tilburg University. Referring to what has been achieved in this domain since the Treaty of Maastricht, these papers not only assess the proposals that have been put forward in successive policy documents relating to the Stockholm Programme, but they also pinpoint to the ongoing problems in the theory and practice of police and judicial cooperation within the European Union and to the ways in which these questions could best be solved.

The globalization of threats and the complexity of international security issues represents a greater challenge for international policing in (re)shaping inter-agency interaction, and makes effective international police cooperation more necessary than ever before. This book sets out to analyse the key emerging issues and theory and practice of international police cooperation. Paying special attention to the factors that have contributed to the effective working of police cooperation in practice and the problems that are encountered, this book brings together original research that examines opportunities and initiatives undertaken by agencies (practices and processes introduced) as well as the impact of external legal, political, and economical pressures. Contributors explore emerging initiatives and new challenges in several contexts at both national and international levels. They adopt a diversity of approaches and theoretical frameworks to reach a broader understanding of current and future issues in police cooperation. Forms of police cooperation and trends in crime control are examined, drawing upon the following disciplines: criminology, ethics, organizational science, political science, and sociology.

One of the most dynamic areas of EU law since the great changes brought to the EU constitutional order by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999 has been cooperation in the fields of policing and criminal justice. Both fields have already been the subject of substantial legislative effort in the EU and an increasing amount of judicial activity in the European Court of Justice. In 2007 - after the Constitutional Treaty of 2004 failed - the new Reform Treaty planned very substantive changes to these policies. Bringing together a wide-ranging set of topics and contributors, this book enables readers to understand these changes by examining three key questions: how did we get to the Reform Treaty; what have been - and still are - the key struggles in competence; and how do the changes fit into the transformation of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU?

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.

Concerns three main topics: Dynamics of effective international cooperation against terrorism: Facilitators and barriers; Law enforcement response to terrorism in different countries and regions; and Emergency management lessons for Homeland Security.

This book offers a sociological analysis of the history of international police cooperation in the period from the middle of the 19th century until the end of World War II. It is a detailed exploration of international cooperation strategies involving police institutions from the United States and Germany as well as other European countries.