Description
This book is comprised of papers that were initially presented at a conference held in Paris on December 1-4 1992. This conference was sponsored by the French Institut des hautes รฉtudes de la sรฉcuritรฉ intรฉrieure (THESI; Institute for Advanced Studies in Internal Security), under the direction of Mr. Jean-Marc Erbes. The title of the conference, which adequately describes its focus, was Policing Systems and Police Cooperation in Europe: Comparisons, Trends and Challenges.
The conference was attended by more than 450 participants, selected among police, government administrators and academics. These parti- cipants came from all countries of Europe and from the USA and Canada. The conference was centred on five main presentations, four of which described the features of four 'models' of policing, namely the British, French, German and the USA community policing models, the other pre- sentation was devoted to police cooperation in Europe. A large number of workshops and panels were organized on the themes developed in the principal presentations. A general report framing some of the conclusions to be drawn from the conference was presented at the end. In all, eighty- eight persons presented a paper at the conference. The five main presen- tations and the general report are included in this book, as well as a selection of the papers read in the course of the workshops.
These papers present an informative perspective on the current state of policing in Europe, which is also compared to what is happening in North America. The main presenters were asked to provide a description of policing in their respective countries which addressed similar topics for the purpose of facilitating comparisons. In brief, these topics were history, mandate, personnel, structure, accountability and future trends. The picture emerging from these comparative studies and from the discussions in the workshops is both instructive and striking.
