Review

James Sheptycki (ed) (2000) Issues in

Transnational Policing. London:
Routledge
Elrena van der Spuy

Two decades ago in a fine article about the state of police research,
Maureen Cain (1979) remarked on the lack of an adequate conceptualisation
of policing, on the narrow institutional focus of research, and on the
absence of any substantive theorisation of the police-state relationship.
The article became a useful point of reference since it forged some
conceptual order in what was often a diffuse field of sociological inquiry.
Afterwards, in the 1980s, there was a profusion of scholarly writing
(largely Anglo-Saxon) both on the police and on social control more
broadly.
By the 1990s policing studies had, as it were, lost its innocence. It soon
became clear that pro-police naivete, ideological romanticism and theoretical
dogmatism simply could not succeed in capturing the complexity of the
modern police persona. Policing too turned out to be subject to the long
march of history. Privatisation and globalisation in particular were now
shaping its fortunes at the local level in ways which Cain - situated on her
tropical Caribbean island - could hardly have anticipated.
With scholars such as Clifford Shearing in the lead, the drift to a
privatisedpolicing function through market forces began to receive attention
right after the appearance of Cain's seminal piece. It is now quite common
to read of the 'mixed economy' of the terrain of policing, characterised by
extensive diversity. Debates about the effects of globalisation on public
police institutions, however, are of more recent vintage. The demise of the
Cold War, the rapid internationalisation of trade, advances in the
technological arena and the growth in organised crime have changed the
structural context of policing.

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 Elrena van der Spuy

In the literature, the transnationalisation of policing is portrayed as a

function of the transnationalisation of crime. The latter again points to the
increasingly spatial mobility of crime - particularly of an organised nature
- at the level of its plotting, planning, execution and associated effects. Key
manifestations of crime as a migratory phenomenon crisscrossing national
borders include trafficking in drugs, human beings and money laundering.
They are generally viewed as bound up with a metamorphosis of the nature
of organised crime conducted by syndicates, gangs and all the other
entrepreneurial structures that new and lucrative international opportunities
have called forth. It follows that new crime threats in an increasingly
interdependent security environment require novel law enforcement
strategies. A critical feature of such strategies is likely to be much denser
and more intimate networks of co-operation between the law enforcement
regimes of particular states. Much of the current debate on the transnational
policing focuses on the form, content and consequences associated with the
cooperative networks and strategic alliances that are being forged amongst
law enforcement agencies at the sub- and supra-state levels.
Both the Europeanisation and Americanisation of law enforcement
practices have been the subject matter of enquiry of a number of recent
publications. Three questions in particular are central to such explorations:
What are the social conditions under which police cooperation gains
momentum? What are the substantive features of this kind of police
interaction? What are the ramifications (both organisationally and
politically) of the evolving networks of police cooperation? Some of the
most important publications on this front include Police Co-operation in
the European Community (1987), which provided one of the first descriptive
explorations of the networks of police cooperation as they evolved in those
early, post-Thatcherite days of Eurostate deliberations. Both Policing
across National Boundaries (1994) and Policing the European Union
(1995) considered in much finer detail a range of practical, political and
theoretical issues accompanying the process of international police-
cooperation in Europe. Policing Europe: co-operation, conflict and control
(1995) spoke more about the development of an 'internal security deficit'
in response to the new crime threats posed by drugs, illegal immigrants and
terrorism. It is this perceived security deficit, they noted, that provided
momentum toward the development of international policing regimes, the
consolidation of information systems and cross-border operational
exchanges.

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Looking beyond Europe, the debate on internationalisation of policing

has also crystallised across the Atlantic. On this score the seminal work of
Nadelmann's Cops Across Border (1993) deserves particular mention. By
charting US internationalisation across two historical epochs (1878-1939
and 1940-1992), Nadelmann provides an historical corrective to the debate
by demonstrating that the export of policing ideas, strategies and the
cementing of institutional linkages between components of the security
regime are not altogether new phenomena.
Against this background of a growing academic literature on the subject,
what is of interest in the recent book edited by James Sheptycki of the
University of Durham, entitled Issues in Transnational Policing1} First,
here is a brief overview of the main thematic concerns of the book,
followed by some critical comments on its form and substance.
In the introductory chapter, Sheptycki provides a brief review of the
literature on transnationalism and concludes by constructing a typology for
policing. The latter aims at capturing the central features of policing in the
twenty-first century. The typology is built on a three-tiered scaffold. It
consolidates some old ideas in a more expansive conceptual grid. The first
axis makes a distinction between high and low policing. Here the author
borrows from the 1983 work of Jean-Paul Brodeur. There Brodeur
emphasised that the distinction between conventional (low) and more
political (high) forms of policing also holds true in liberal democracies.
The second axis involves the distinction between public and private
policing in terms of which the complex division ofpolicing labour between
state and market is acknowledged. The third distinction is between the
policing of territory versus what Sheptycki calls 'suspect populations'.
The rest of the contributors take up specific topics within the broad area
sketched out by Sheptycki. First in line is Les Johnston who takes the
discussion on the privatisation of policing into the global village. Here he
traces the features and fortunes of commercial security in the transnational
sphere. What binds rent-a-cop outfits as far afield as South Africa, Brazil,
Italy and Singapore are the tentacles of global capital, multinational
ownership, the imperative of profit maximisation and an operational logic
primarily concerned with anticipating business risks and minimising losses.
Johnston offers both a robust description of the global security market and
a substantive appraisal of its associated challenges. Where he breaks ranks
with the radical chic analysis of others is when he suggests that democratic
lessons may be extracted from corporate forms of governance (of which

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private security is an interesting example): After all, as he states, there is

nothing which precludes the possibility that 'risk based thinking' (so
central to corporate security regimes) may 'aid the minimisation of harm'
that is so central an objective of state-centered policing.
In chapter 3 Jean-Paul Brodeur explores, by means of two examples
involving transnational policing investigations into economic crimes, the
implications for due process and constitutionality. While some may find
the case studies too cumbersome to navigate, the gist of the contribution is
thankfully encapsulated in the introduction. In this chapter Brodeur puts
his seminal distinction between 'high' (political) and 'low' (routine)
policing (which dates back to a provocative article of the mid-1980s) to
good use. Transnational policing, argues the author, holds the potential for
blurring the lines between routine and political policing. This is so for two
reasons in particular. The first has to do with the overwhelming importance
of intelligence in transnational policing operations. The second has to do
with a structural disposition toward increasing cooperation between the
public police, the military and other state security bodies characteristic of
security management in the post-Cold War era. Robust mechanisms of
police accountability, fine-tuned to the transnational environment, will be
required to offset the potential for a democratic deficit emerging in new age
policing. In this respect, supra-national mechanisms such as the European
Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court face a difficult
but necessary task by functioning as oversight and accountability structures
for the transnational bodies of armed men/women.
But what about new pockets of bureaucratic interest emerging in the
transnational policing environment? Didier Bigo turns his attention to the
sleek breed of liaison officers (the urbane, cosmopolitan, specialist
knowledge-brokers) that now dot the policing landscape in Europe. As a
stratum ofpolicing specialists they occupy an intermediate position between
the political elite and the operational policing arms deployed on home
territory. Middlemen professionals of a new virtual age, they are adept at
fighting the battles for operational independence and political influence in
pursuit of a modernisation of policing habits and a harmonisation of
policing systems and procedures. Those interested in the fortunes of
policing subcultures under current conditions of globalisation, are bound
to find Bigo's venture into the enclave of liaison officers rewarding.
Peter Manning's engagement with the 'Policing ofnew social spaces' in
a 'wired planet' speaks to the demands which cyberspace places on

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policing well beyond the national boundaries of any one state. 'Policing in
new social spaces has produced new, ever more shrill claims for crime-
threat control by police ... and has stimulated new rhetorical devices,
representational strategies and innovative organisational tactics that are
helping to reshape policing in the twenty first century' (2000:197).
Transformations in communication and the commodification of information
give momentum to 'communicational' and'informational policing' driven
by intelligence-gathering and counter-intelligence strategies. Manning's
excursion into cyberspace alludes to the kinds of challenges which may
come to confront the policing of cybercrime. Coming to terms with the
latter will require a departure from the exclusive emphasis on terrestrial
crime in policing studies.
Piracy, slavery and drugs provide the focus for a discussion by Frank
Gregory on the emergence and consolidation of transnational criminal law
regimes and the associated transnational law enforcement capacity to
which it gives rise. The three examples capture historical continuities in the
way in which the social construction of crime (at the international level)
involve political and moral issues. In Chapter 5 Sheptycki illustrates the
challenges facing transnational control practices and the difficulties
associated with the global governance of security through the prism of anti-
money laundering strategies. He provides a detailed description of the
emergence of money laundering as a global security concern, and of the
regulatory regimes and diverse mechanisms to which it has given rise.
Sheptycki finds it instructive to portray anti-money laundering regimes as
an example not so much of the impotence of the state but rather of
'government at a distance'. Instead of simply witnessing a 'hollowing out'
of the state, there is evidence of a new 'polycentricity of power' as we
witness a 'diffusion, multiplication and intensification of governmental
practice within certain specific sovereign states outwards, from the
transnational level downwards and from the sub-state institutions upwards'
(2000:165). What warrants concern is that the emerging system of
transnational policing functions within a fragmented legal framework. The
overwhelming emphasis on law enforcement effectiveness in transnational
policing is likely to detract, as Boister (2001) puts it, from values such as
due process, legality and human rights.
In the concluding chapter, Sheptycki focuses on what he regards as a
'prototypical instance' of transnational law enforcement, namely the drug
war. From this 'flagship' instance he draws some lessons for global

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governance. Policing, states Sheptycki, is a crucial element of governance,

a 'barometer of the transnationalisation of governance' (2000:223).
Transnational policing thus provides a view on governmental practices of
the transnational state system. In this chapter, the evolution of the global
drug prohibition regime is charted, and the role of moral entrepreneurs,
sub-state actors (Federal Bureau of Narcotics) and high policing agencies
captured.
Such are the substantive concerns of the text as it lies before us. But
wherein lies its distinct contribution within the broader policing debate?
Does it contribute to a more subtle understanding of the processes, which
impact on the politics and logistics of contemporary policing? Does it
provide us with analytical tools to decipher the complexities of policing
under current global conditions? It is in trying to pass judgement on the text
that it is helpful to return to the mixture of promises in the introduction. The
intention of this book we are told is to situate policing - squarely - in a
context of globalisation and transnationalism. Coming to terms with this
structural background, would mean to take policing studies to new
conceptual horizons by crossing the 'boundaries between criminology,
international relations and international law' as the blurb on the jacket
proclaims. Such bold promises however, are offset by more modest ones:
"This volume aims to begin answering the question' about transnational
policing. 'The intention is to open up a field of inquiry and consequently
the book does not offer an encyclopedic compendium of work done in the
area' (2000:1).
Issues in Transnational Policing certainly adds useful descriptive detail
relevant to an understanding of the processes and structures that comprise
the transnational policing regime — in both its state and market incarnation.
The gist of the analysis also concurs with the political sentiments expressed
elsewhere in the literature, namely that the consolidation of associative
policing networks at a supra-state level is bound to give a (transnational)
edge to conventional, state-centered discussions on police effectiveness
and accountability. But in contrast to the simple conspiratorial depictions
of transnational policing co-operation such as Big Brother gone Global,
many of the contributors in this volume stress instead the uneven,
contradictory and heterogeneous character of the processes underlying the
trans-nationsalisation of policing. Like privatisation, transnationalisation
also requires a re-appraisal of conventional understandings of police and
policing. In this volume too one is reminded of the conceptual and political

110
shortcomings associated with the classical Weberian view of the state as an
apparatus which successfully lays claim to a monopoly over the use of
legitimate force. Issues in TransnationalPofrczng however, suggests some
caution when we summarily interpret the transnationalisation of policing
as indicative of a 'leaner', 'impotent' or 'hollowed out' state. If policing is
to be appreciated as a 'barometer of the transnationalisation of governance'
then we had better make sure that our understanding of such changing
modes of governance is subtle as opposed to crude.
A sharper, and more thorough sketch of key conceptual matters
(globalisation, internationalisation, transnationalism) would have added
conceptual value to the text if we are to appreciate what is distinctive about
the current phase of policing interchanges beyond the confines of the
nation-state. Elsewhere (in legal circles) there are promising indications of
the distinctiveness of transnational crime and transnational criminal law
compared to international crime and criminal law, being explored (Boister
2001).
Finally, the collection of essays could have benefited from a concluding
chapter in which the analytical insights forthcoming from the individual
chapters and case studies were woven into some kind of bold theoretical
synthesis. In the absence of the latter, the promise of the introduction to
take policing studies to 'new conceptual horizons' is hinted at but not
delivered. Such a theoretical synthesis of course would have to be based on
an appreciation of the kinds of conditions underlying the era of 'late
modernity'. In the fashionable criminological literature on the left much
has been spoken about the impact of late modernity on the way we talk
about crime and actually do crime prevention (Garland 2001, Young 1999)
Such debates, of course, are of relevance to the deliberations on policing
too as Johnston's (2000) recent offering makes clear. In the latter Johnston
maps out the features, underlying processes and functions of 'late modern
policing'. His discussion goes a long way in identifying the structural shifts
which have accompanied the consolidation of 'late modern society', the
impact on the character and reach of the nation-state, consequent changes
in 'political rule' and the influence of all of this on the contested terrain of
policing. The new features of the transnationalisation of policing need to
be located in a political context for us to appreciate the challenges which
a sociology of policing faces at present. Whether we refer to that political
contest as one of 'late modernity' or of a transition from a nation-state to
a 'market-state' (see Runciman 2002) is neither here nor there. For a

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sociology of policing in the twenty-first century the challenges ahead are

clear enough, namely to theorise not only the police-state relationship (of
which Cain spoke) but also to revisit the policing-state relationship. The
usefulness of Issues in Transnational Policing lies in the detail that it
provides from a variety of angles on the way in which the transnationalisatioh
of policing is mutating in practice. It is a text that undoubtedly raises a wide
range of issues relevant to policing scholars situated outside of the Western
hemisphere too, for our respective futures are intertwined.

References
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Staff Seminar, Institute of Criminology, Law School. University of Cape
Town, October 11.
Cain, Maureen (1979) 'Trends in the sociology of police work', The International
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Fijnaut, C and RH Hermans (eds) (1987) Police Co-operation in the European
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Garland, D (2001) The Culture of Control. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Young, J (1999) The Exclusive Society. London: Sage Publications.

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