Municipal Policing in the European Union: Comparative Perspectives

In the past municipal policing was easier to define as it incorporated local authority duties, crime prevention and police patrol. However in the contemporary setting, police resources are regularly being overstretched and new ways of alleviating workloads are continually being sought. One method of achieving this goal has been by involving other people and technologies to assist the police in their everyday tasks. A system of partnership and technology, underpinned by legislation, has made this ambition possible.
This book reviews how traditional municipal policing has evolved in a number of European Union countries considering a range of topics including history, community policing, civilianisation, auxiliaries, surveillance, governance and politics. Donnelly provides an exclusive vista of EU policing at a time of increasing collaboration and predicts that future local communities will have some form of police enforcement mechanism that will not always include the sworn police officer.