1st Edition
Invading the Private State Accountability and New Investigative Methods in Europe
First published in 1998, this volume seeks to examine a range of policing techniques which are new, if not in their conception, then at least in their importance to the form of police enquiries in the late 20th century. Some of them are beginning to be discussed under categories of 'proactive' or 'covert' policing: others are termed 'technological' because they depend intimately on the development of the new information technologies.
In much of Western Europe and North America the nature of police investigative methods is being transformed. At the centre of these developments are three main trends. First, there is the increasing use of covert intelligence-gathering techniques such as participating informers, police undercover operations and surveillance proactively targeted at ‘suspicious’ individuals or networks. Secondly, there is the development of increasingly sophisticated information gathering and processing technologies (DNA) and fingerprint data bases, general intelligence storage systems, computer analysis of open source data, the Internet). Lastly there is an extending exploitation of powers to compel private individuals and companies to provide the state with information about themselves and third parties (including the use of information originally supplied to the state for purposes other than criminal investigation).
This book argues that in different ways these trends represent a new invasion of the private sphere by investigative methods and a new challenge for traditional mechanisms for rendering the state’s policing accountable such as the trial, the judge and the defence lawyer. Bringing together contributions from sociologists and lawyers in Western Europe and North America, it surveys these developments, considers the regulatory options for their control and their implications for legal principles of privacy and due process.
1. Introduction. Stewart Field and Caroline Pelser. Part I. The New Intelligence Gathering: Covert and Proactive Policing. 2. The Criminal Informant: Police Management, Supervision and Control. Steven Greer and Nigel South. 3. Police Surveillance and its Regulation in England and Wales. Timothy John and Mike Maguire. 4. The Legal Framework of Covert and Proactive Policing in France. Stewart Field. 5. Proactive Policing in France. Claude Journès. 6. Special Police Methods of Investigation: New Legislation in the Netherlands. Theo de Roos. 7. Proactive Investigation: a Belgian Perspective. Cyrille Fijnaut and Frank Vebruggen. 8. Intelligence Services and Undercover Operations: the Case of Euromac. Nikos Passas and Jack A. Blum. Part II. The New Information Gathering: Some New Sources. 9. Sun Tzu goes Electronic. The Changing Nature of Proactive Methods in (Criminal) Intelligence. Bob Hoogenboom. 10. Data Bases – Positive Policing or Civil Liberties Nightmare? Fiona Donson. 11. Financial Investigation and Privacy in Britain and the Netherlands. Roan Lamp, Michael Levi and Wanda Kerver-Poldervaart. 12. Police Intelligence Gathering and Access to Journalists’ Materials. Chrisje Brants. 13. Journalists and the Protection of Sources of Information in the Netherlands. Chrisje Brants. 14. Journalistic Material in the UK Criminal Process. Ruth Costigan. 15. The Privilege against Self-Incrimination in Proactive Policing. Peter Alldridge and Bert Swart. Part III. Accountability and Control: Some Potential Strategies. 16. Controlling Cross Border Undercover Operations. Jack A. Blum and Nikos Passas. 17. Proactive Policing: Limiting the Role of the Defence Lawyer. Ed Cape and Taru Spronken. 18. Judicial Regulation of Covert and Proactive Policing in the Netherlands and England and Wales. Stewart Field and Nico Jörg. 19. Proactive Policing and the Principles of Immediacy and Orality. John R. Spencer. 20. Invading the Private? Towards Conclusions. Stewart Field.
Biography
Stewart Field, Caroline Pelser
’...a fine contribution to the literature. The book will be useful to researchers...practitioners...expediates identification of trouble spots and helps future researchers more fully contextualise the conversation on individual privacy rights.’ Law and Politics
