Against Several Odds: German-Polish Police Cooperation

• In Event: Policing in Europe

Abstract

This study explores cross-border police cooperation between Germany and Poland. Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with 17 German and 3 Polish police officers as well as from expert interviews with one senior German police official and two German prosecutors.
Cross-border police cooperation seeks to compensate for the limitations that international borders impose on effective law enforcement with respect to cross-border crime and cross-border mobile offenders. While the need for cross-border cooperation is widely recognized, various obstacles exist in practice, including differences in law, culture, language, and socio-economic conditions. This implies that police agencies will collaborate most closely and most successfully between highly homogenous neighboring countries. The case of Germany and Poland provides an example for police cooperation in light of historical tensions, differences in law and police culture, and a profound language barrier. We examine the bi-national and multi-national legal framework for, and the practice of police cooperation with a view to one specific stretch of the German-Polish border, between the state of Brandenburg and the voivodship Lubus. We argue that there is a combination of formal and informal mechanisms in place to cope with existing obstacles to cooperation.

Authors

• Klaus von Lampe, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY

• Aleksandra Zurakowska, European University Viadrina