Intelligence-led policing: comparing national approaches to its regulation and control

Intelligence-led policing is increasingly regarded as a pragmatic reality, based on the assumption that pro-active investigation and disruption of criminal activities is more effective than a reactive model of policing. Meanwhile, as intelligence-led policing is spread across many jurisdictions, supported and transferred by institutional vehicles like Interpol and Europol, one could argue that public policing is the subject of a thorough reconfiguration, leading to profound normative questions concerning legitimacy and citizens’ rights. In most liberal democracies, legal rules confine the limits within which intelligence-led policing can be conducted. Interception of telecommunication, the use of surveillance devices and the employment of informers all belong to a growing repertory of intelligence-based policing activities. Increasingly, intelligence-led policing is applied in the context of ordinary policing tasks, making accountability, transparency and procedural rights increasingly relevant in a wide situational variety.