This book critically examines how countries across Europe have dealt with the COVID crisis from a policing and security perspective. Across the chapters, contributors from different countries examine the data, press coverage, and provide professional observations on how policing, law enforcement, police powers and community relations were managed. They focus on how security and governmental actors often failed to align with the formal scripts that were specifically designed for crisis-management, resulting in the wavering application of professional discretion and coercive powers. Their different approaches were evident: in some regions police were less dominantly visible compared to other regions, where the police used a top-down visible and repressive stance vis-a-vis public alignment with COVID rules, including the imposition of lockdown and curfews. Some contributors draw on data from the COROPOL (Corona Policing) Monitor which collated data on crime, plural policing and public order in Europe and around the world during the early phases of the COVID crisis. Overall, this book seeks to provide comparative critical insights and commentary as well as a practical and operational understanding of security governance during the COVID-19 crisis and the lessons learned to improve future preparedness.

Public police forces are a regular phenomenon in most jurisdictions around the world, yet their highly divergent legal context draws surprisingly little attention. Bringing together a wide range of police experts from all around the world, this book provides an overview of traditional and emerging fields of public policing. In this handbook, academics and practitioners explore the relationship between policing and the law and focus on case material and human rights issues. The book concludes that public policing is far from self-evident, particularly in an era where more emphasis is placed upon private security, anti-terrorism and modern technology. As digital and global societies demand new solutions to rapidly changing social challenges, public police will undergo a transformation. New material and findings are presented with an international-comparative perspective. It is a must-read for students of policing, security and law and professionals in related fields. Contributors include: F. Allum, P. de Hert, W. de Lint, M. den Boer, M. Egan, E. Ferreira, N.R. Fyfe, S. Gilmour, S. Gomes, C. Harfield, M. Hassan, M. Head, V. Herrington, S. Hufnagel, A. James, T. Mankkinen, P.K. Manning, R. Mawby, T. Munk, M. O'Neill, S. Perez, A. Pocrnic, J. Saifert, J.A. Schafer, C. Shearing, P. Stenning, M. van der Woude, S. Virta, T. Xu, N. Yang

International co-operation in criminal law enforcement has become a centrally important policy issue for Europe in the 1990s. In criminal matters, when a decision is taken to go beyond the discretionary exchange of information towards institutionalized police co-operation, a whole Pandora's box of issues and problems is opened. This book, based on interviews in a wide variety of documentary sources, examines the progress of this co-operation. The authors cover all the major and theoretical issues associated with the emerging pattern of co-operation, including the harmonization of criminal law and criminal procedure, law enforcement strategies, police organization and discipline, and the politics of immigration and civil liberties. In a European Union without internal border controls there is widespread agreement on the objective of closer police co-operation. But prospects in some areas are not good and there are potential pitfalls, even dangers, along the road to more integrated arrangements. The authors conclude by making recommendations that proper accountability arrangements are a prerequisite of a balanced and efficient system of European police co-operation.