DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS
European integration: The implications for police accountability in Britain, by Patrizia Klinckhamers, MSc Criminal Justice Policy 1993/94, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, September 1994, 46 p.
The author explains how and why a multi-tiered policing system has evolved in the United Kingdom. Beside the local and regional level, a "national" level is gaining increasing importance, while at the supranational level new police structures are being more precisely defined and organised.
The British police has undergone many changes. In part, these were the consequence of a growing internal conflict about the police system and what it was supposed to represent and achieve. The reform is realised in the Police and Magistrates Court Act of July 1994. On the other hand, European integration and the - assumed - threat to security and public order related to the open borders policy instigated reorganisation and the establishment of structures which are used as central points of reference and are supposed to help in the combat against international crime.
The author comes to the conclusion that accountability structures which are present at the different tiers of policing are far from satisfactory. If anything, the organisation of control over the new "national" initiatives adds weight to the already existing tendency towards more centralisation of power. From every level, lines of authority extend towards the Home Office and its officials, eroding the democratic accountability of the institutions. At the local level, democratic accountability is replaced by an "accountability to the Community", in the form of service delivery and the pretence of devolving more responsibility towards the local police authorities.
The author comments on efforts of the conservative government to enhance "value for money" thinking also into the management of the police service and to reduce public expenditure by internal monitoring and appraisal of its performance, and she quotes Professor Robert Reiner: "Under this regime [the police officers] will be accountable for their actions as never before. That's the good news. The bad news is that they will be accountable in the spirit of accountancy, not democratic accountability". Klinckhamers suggests that the conservative police reform "will devolve responsibility downwards to local police commanders, but power will be concentrated more than ever in the hand of central government". The position of the police is "somewhat ambiguous", she concludes: "While being on one side - especially at the local level - more under the control of central government, it nevertheless seems able to gradually expand its professional autonomy, using their expertise on international crime.
Available from: Patrizia Klinckhamers, Institut v. Politiële Organisatie, H. Hooverplein 10, B-3000 Leuven; Tel: +32/16 325307; Fax: +32/16 325427.Integrationsindex - zur rechtlichen Integration von AusländerInnen in ausgewählten europäischen Ländern, by Rainer Bauböck, Dilek Çinar, Christoph Hofinger and Harald Waldrauch, Institut für Höhere Studien, Vienna, July 95, 57 p. and appendix, in German.
The "Integration Index" is the first attempt to measure and compare legal integration barriers in various European countries on the basis of equivalent statistical indices in the domains of stay and residence, access to the labour market, family reunification, naturalisation, legal status of the "second generation" (immigrant children born in the host country). The study reveals considerable differences of legal frameworks of relevance in the integration of legally resident immigrants. The countries comprised in the study are: Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and Sweden. The study seems to confirm that German speaking countries and in particular Austria have the most restrictive policies with regard to the integration of immigrants, while Sweden has the most liberal approach.