Book Review: Policing in Europe

• DOI: 10.1177/1057567711419045
• Author: Aaron Fichtelberg
• Published date: 01 December 2011
• Date: 01 December 2011
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

A. Verhage, J. Terpstra, P. Deelman, E. Muylaert, and P. Van Parys

Policing in Europe Antwerpen, Belgium: Maklu, 2010. 5, 360 pp. $47.00. ISBN: 978-9046602713

Reviewed by: Aaron Fichtelberg, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567711419045

This book, really a special issue of the Journal of Police Studies, brings together an array of

European police scholars to discuss two central developments in European Policing: (a) the

development of formal and informal tools of cross-national cooperation in policing, and (b) the

diverse ways in which foreign policing innovations (community policing and plural policing)

are incorporated into various national police organizations, and how these domestic policing

traditions modify (or undermine) these innovations. The contributors are largely academic but there

are also some very helpful contributions from practitioners. This dual approach to the subject is

beneficial in that it sees the globalization of policing both as a national and transnational pheno-

menon and would be useful for anybody wanting to understand the underexplored world of policing

in the European Union (EU) as well as for teaching this subject.

Police cooperation: The transnationalization of criminal activity in an effectively borderless

Europe has placed great strains on traditional national policing systems, requiring the development

of new practices and institutions across the continent. Most of the articles that deal with this topic

examine specific aspects of this process, though a few focus on particular nations’ experiences with

the subject. One of the most useful perhaps, particularly to those unfamiliar with the details of

European police cooperation is the first piece, ‘‘The Past, Present, and Future of general police

cooperation within the EU,’’ which provides a nice account of the interconnections between

Interpol, Europol, and the EU as well as De Moor and Vermeulen’s analysis of the changing role

of Europol as it integrates with the EU. Each of these would prove excellent resources for teaching

the subject.

One of the themes that arises out of this article and is explored by several authors in this volume

(Guille, Neyroud, and Vassilas) is that the haphazard way that these institutions are constructed has

led to ‘‘too many parallel channels of communication/cooperation [that] represent a highly confus-

ing and ineffective situation’’ (p. 58) and further raises important questions about democratic

accountability and transparency. According to the consensus, (a) there is a vast proliferation of

institutions for European police to cooperate, (b) these different institutions are confusing, but there

has been some effort to consolidate them (Neyroud and Vassilas), (c) but without a shared European

philosophy of policing in terms of how the police interact with the public and their relation to the

social order (Sheptycki, Neyroud, and Vassilas), and standardized practices (Rybicki) the formation

of a European policing model is likely to remain restricted to a few special areas of law enforcement

such as terrorism. As a snapshot of the current state of European integration, this text provides a rich

and nuanced understanding of what is very much a work in progress.

Community policing and plural policing: The second and third sections deal with the translation

of foreign, mostly American policing practices into local European contexts. While the first group of

International CriminalJustice Review

21(4) 462-478

ª2011 Georgia State University

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