Archiv der Kategorie: Summaries

The – yet – only englishspoken section of Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP. Find here a brief summary of all articles of each edition.

CILIP 097, Summaries

Summaries

Thematic focus: Private prosecutors

Private and state investigators – an introduction
by Norbert Pütter
The private security market is not restricted to patrol and watch services. In the context of increasing industry interest in security, the focus has turned to investigative activities executed either by in-house security departments and/or external service providers. The private contractor thereby decides the cause of the „investigation” and decides whether its results lead to charges being filed. There is, however, no contradiction in the relation between private and state security. Rather, different forms of cooperation and information exchange exist, which are sometimes legally fixed and at other times result from informal connections. The area of „grey policing”, whereby industry and state interest overlap, represents a serious threat. Summaries weiterlesen →

CILIP 096, Summaries

Summaries

Focus: Crossing borders – Police on the way

Police on the way – an introduction
by Heiner Busch
It is not only true of the political police forces, which traditionally operate abroad with or without permission, that police activities do not end at state borders. In the last few decades massive internationalisation of police activities has taken place. European police forces currently have access to extensive networks of liaison officers. Within the context of the EU, cross-border police operations were legalised. Even the dispatching of large contingents of riot police to summit meetings or football matches is possible today. The border police of the EU states are active along the common external border. In addition, police are often in action together with the military in operations abroad. Summaries weiterlesen →

CILIP 095, Summaries

Summaries

Theme: Violence against/by the police

Police and violence – victims and perpetrators
by Norbert Pütter
Police trade unions and politicians of the conservative-liberal coalition are proposing more stringent criminal laws to counter an alleged increase in violence against police officers, which they are trying to prove by falsely interpreting police crime statistics. The increasing cases of „resisting a police officer in the execution of his duty“ only show non-violent forms of resistance whilst the assaults against officers are usually classified as inflicting bodily harm, and within this category they are not further specified by numbers. Furthermore, charges lodged by police on grounds of „resistance“ are commonly used to deter complaints against police violence. Unless violence against the police is linked to the demand for a less violent police force and society as a whole, neither the police nor citizens are served. Summaries weiterlesen →

CILIP 094, Summaries

Summaries

Theme: Security-industrial complex

From the military to the security industrial complex
by Heiner Busch
The spiralling technological armament has reached the sphere of public security. The overlaps and parallels to the military-industrial complex are hard to miss. They can be seen in the companies involved, the use of military technology but particularly in the political dynamic: the continually renewed threat scenarios of terrorist attacks and other catastrophes that allegedly require society to be prepared for the „worst case” and to create the necessary scientific technological and industrial bases. The result is a surveillance technology that in many ways resembles the intricate nuclear arsenal of the Cold War era. Summaries weiterlesen →

CILIP 093, Summaries

Summaries

Theme: German intelligence services

Intelligence services of the German Federal Republic – an introduction
by Norbert Pütter
Germany’s intelligence services that is the Federal Office and the 16 regional offices of the Länder as internal intelligence services, the foreign intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and the Military Counterintelligence Agency (Militärischer Abschirmdienst) – are remnants of the Cold War. After the end of the same, they swiftly found new remits and became – more closely than ever – interlinked with the police authorities. The constitutional law of separation between the two has long since been redefined to one of cooperation. Contrary to their official pledges, intelligence services are not merely passive information collection points, but they rather carry out covert actions. Their legal bases do not really restrict them in their actions and their parliamentary control has proven to be ineffective. Even if discounting the numerous scandals surrounding the services, there are no success stories to justify their existence. Abolishing intelligence services altogether is therefore the only logical conclusion. Summaries weiterlesen →

CILIP 092, Summaries

Summaries

Theme: The police – dealing with its National Socialist past?

The politics of German police history – an introduction
by Wolf-Dieter Narr
The German police formed an essential part of the Nazi regime and its genocidal machinery. Today, this fact is generally accepted within the police, too. However, it remains without consequence, partly because the continuities in personnel have become obsolete with the death of former Nazi police officers. But also because the history of the police’s role in the National Socialist era is being treated as dead history, which makes the Federal Republic of Germany of today appear in bright light. Summaries weiterlesen →

CILIP 091, Summaries

Summaries

Focus: EU security architecture

Next round in the construction of an EU state
by Heiner Busch and Peer Stolle
The report of the informal Future Group from June 2008 is the blueprint for the next five year programme of the EU’s home affairs policy. The group continued to build on the existing agenda towards the construction of an EU state: it wants to continue cementing the external borders, expand FRONTEX and Europol and not only do away with barriers to the information exchange between police forces, but also to the operational cooperation across internal borders. The abolition of the separation of police and military is not viewed as a problem by Europe’s executive powers. And data protection is used by them as a legitimising veneer for the extension of state surveillance. Summaries weiterlesen →

CILIP 090, Summaries

Summaries

Theme: Security architecture I – The networks within

Changing security architectures
by Norbert Pütter
Whilst the changing monopoly of power has long been characterised by an orientation towards prevention and centralisation, new tendencies can be detected since the 1990s. Under the motto „networking“, the separation of police and security services is being undermined, the armed forces are given new remits and hybrid organisations working on information exchange and cooperation are being institutionalised. In this process, the „new security architecture“ is not following the models of the planners, but is determined by intermeshing established interests. With the result that all apparati are strengthened, which in turn intensifies the problem of controlling them. Summaries weiterlesen →