1
INTERNATIONAL POLICE AND JUDICIAL
COOPERATION
ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023
Prof.dr. Dirk Van Daele
PART A. INTERNATIONAL POLICE
COOPERATION
Chapter I. The historical roots of international police
cooperation
1.1. Cooperation in two fields
1. Regular criminal offences:
This is the classical delinquency: murder, robberies, theft (diefstal) … As a
reaction, police services in different countries made lists of wanted
persons. They exchange these lists with each other. In larger European
cities they created special departments (Paris, Berlin, Hamburg…). The
organization was very similar in every city, which was easier to corporate
with each other.
‘Information exchange’ was important. Each police cooperation had to stay
in his own border and they could not operate in other countries (there
were no cross-border operations). So it was all about information
exchange.
2. Political crimes:
It’s about high policing: police operations against opponents of the regime.
The most striking example is the Russian OKHRANA. It was created at the
end of the 19th century as a reaction of the Russian regime to the
assassination of the Russian Tsar (head of state). Tsar Alexander II was
killed by violent anarchists. The OKHRANA gathered information, but the
problem was that the criminal organizations operated from abroad and not
only from Russia. They wanted police operations abroad. That’s why they
created a network of foreign bureaus of the OKHRANA. These bureaus are
called the ARGENTURA (first one in Paris, later also in Berlin, London…).
From all these bureaus they could find links.
OKHRANA used undercover operations and provocation techniques. After
some time (beginning of 20th century) the European states reacted and
said that this no longer can be tolerated. The Russian regime was in
contradiction with their own regime. They decided that this should end.
Formally they closed the bureaus, but they kept operating.
1.2. The Anti-Anarchist Conference of 1898 (Rome)
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It was organized because at the end of the 19 th century it became clear
that the political crimes were not only a Russian problem. So this builds
further on the high policing.
= A conference of one month, quite a happening. Initiated by the Italian
government. The anarchy problem was the central point! The political
crime E.g., 1892: bombing incidents in Paris by anarchists.
It is clear that anarchy was a broad problem in Europe and we should do
something about it.
Two things were discussed:
1. What do we understand with the concept of anarchism? Different
countries have different legislation, so they tried to develop a common
definition between states.
2. In which way can we improve the police cooperation? They created a
very simple structure, but very powerful (even in 2023). Every country
that participates should set up a specialized unity within its police
structure. This unit (1) must be linked with all the police services within
the country. It should have a very strong information position. The Belgian
unit should have all the information about violent anarchists in Belgium.
(2) There should also be a link between all these units of all the countries.
A Belgian police officer does not know all the ins and outs of the Spanish
or Italian police system. E.g. you have a violent organization in Antwerp
planning a terrorist attack in Italy, who do you have to call? The national
unit in Belgium. Then this unit communicates with the unit in Italy and
passes this information. The Italian unit contacts the Italian unit who needs
to deal with this information. It is a simple way of working together.
The first problem: identification of delinquents. Bertillon and Galton
are two major scientists who helped the functioning of this structure.
They used two important techniques:
1. Bertillon:
He was an anthropologist. He created the Bertillonage: this is a
technique to identify suspects based on physical characteristics
(Lombroso). E.g. hair colour, eyes, body parts, tattoos… He invented the
mug shot. They used a system of photographic and numerical techniques
to identify criminals.
Numerical codes: measurement of head, tattoos, hair … They made a kind
of dictionary with all the codes and they used telegrams to transport this
information.
2. Gelton:
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He invented fingerprints. He concluded that these fingerprints are
individual, permanent and characterizes persons from each other.
Von Liszt is a German lawyer, university professor… He invented the
‘integrated criminal science’. He was very open for criminology. He
came to the conclusion in the beginning of the 19 th century that the
German criminal law and criminal procedure at that moment did not work.
It was very dogmatic (beautiful codes and arguments) but no practical
results. It didn’t work. They needed a combination between legal thinking
and criminologist thinking to make it work. Regular criminals were working
cross-border as well. Internationalistische Kriminalistische
Vereinugung; international criminalistics society. We need a corporation
for normal types of crimes. International conventions were adapted at the
beginning of the 20th century.
1.3. The Monaco Congress of 1914
This is the first conference of international police, with more than 21
countries participating. It was about the discussion of regular types of
crimes. They used the same structure as the Anti-Anarchist conference:
• Special national units
• Links with all the relevant serviced in the countries
• Links between all the units
In this conference, the structure was the only thing that was really
decided. It was not very much of a success. A couple of months later there
was WWI.
Because of the conference you had the idea that the anarchy problem was
under control, but later there was another killing on a leader by anarchists.
They wanted a common roof (international organization) above all the
units.
There was no congress after this, because there was WWI right after this
congress. Lots of people think that if WWI didn’t happen, this conference
would have been a success and so there might have been an international
criminal police, but a lot of people disagree with this (incl. Van Daele),
because:
• The way this congress in Monaco was organized: it was a
bureaucratic way, based on an outdated international policing. If you
want to create a police organization you should know how the
national police organizations work. This information was not
available.
• Much of the countries were against the common roof.
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Another reason why the congress could not have resulted in an
international criminal police: the fear of a political police. There was a
discussion about this, where Reiss said that we needed three things:
1. We should set up an international police agency to monitor the cross-
border crimes.
2. We should set up a mobile unit/brigade which are linked with the
international police agency, to assist the countries to investigate criminals.
They can be send to other countries with this international agency. (=
International mobile bride trade)
3. The further development of forensic sciences.
The conclusion here is that the common roof will not happen. Reiss made
a very good speech for this conference but there was no result. He knew
what was needed because he had operational experience, but all the legal
people didn’t understand it. They thought it was not needed because they
have no police experience. Ideas from Reiss were very good but without
results. Reiss said afterwards that it was not the right time and place to
discuss this because of the fear of a political police. So WWI was needed to
create an international police cooperation, because it changed the minds
of political and legal experts.
1.4. The creation of the Internationale Kriminalpolizeiliche
Kommission
The international criminal police commission. In 1914 they wouldn’t create
it, but now they did create it.
This is the Vienna-congress (1923): after WWI, there is a conference in
Vienna (Austria) with a lot of leading police officers from different
countries. They discussed to set up an International criminal police
commission (ICPC). This was the last conference that was organized.
This commission should extend all the mutual aid thinkable between all
the countries. They need to simulate all the facilities and they should
contribute against the regular types of crime. This common roof means
that all participating countries are working together (create a general
picture, common approach…). This common roof was situated in Vienna.
This is the same model with the special units (zie hierboven), but now
with a roof.
Two reasons:
