European Journal of Policing Studies – Jaargang 2/1 (2014) (ISSN 2034-760x) – Special issue Policing European Metropolises

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Contents:

Introduction
A. Verhage, L. Bisschop, W. Hardyns

Articles

Policing European Metropolises
P. Ponsaers (1), A. Edwards (2), A. Verhage (3) & A. Recasens i Brunet (4)

(1) Senior professor emeritus at Ghent University, Faculty of Law,
department Penal Law and Criminology, Belgium and president of the Flemish Centre for
Policing Studies.
(2) Director of the Cardiff Centre for Crime, Law and Justice.
(3) Director of the Institute for Urban Security
& Policing Studies [SVA] and postdoc researcher at Ghent University, Belgium.
(4) Associated Professor at the l’Escola de Criminologia de la Universitat d’Oporto (Portugal).

Policing Berlin. From separation by the ‘iron
curtain’ to the new German capital
and a globalised city
H. Aden (1) & E. De Pauw (2)

Abstract
Since the 1990s many authors observe a pluralisation of police functions in Europe. The paper shows that this trend is also recognisable in the city of Berlin. For example, private security companies have gained importance. Their presence may indicate an increasing intensity of formal social control.
Prevention in a broach sense has become important for the Berlin State Police. However, policing in this city is also influenced by path-dependencies, going back to the specific situation of a divided city at the frontline of the east-west conflict before 1990 and to the transfer of federal government
institutions to the city since the late 1990s. Specific patterns of the German administrative and legal system also influence policing at Berlin. Compared to the period before 1990 with the presence of the allied military forces and the powerful secret service (Staatssicherheit) in the Eastern part of
the city, Berlin is probably less securitized today.

Keywords: Berlin Police, comparative research into policing, plural policing, policing globalised
cities, path-dependency

(1) Professor of German and European Public Law at the Berlin School of Economics
and Law.
(2) Lecturer and researcher at the VIVES University College, research group on
safety and security.

Policing Sofia. From centralisation to
decentralisation
E. Devroe (1) & M. Petrov (2)

Abstract
In this article, which is embedded in the special issue of the Journal which focuses on the comparative
research project ‘Policing European Metropolises’, the general aim is to provide an answer
to the research question: ‘Are underlying Anglo-American assumptions regarding trends towards
plural policing recognisable in European local geographical settings’? Our underlying question in
this article concerns whether or not the local empirical situation in Sofia differs from more general
evolutions of policing in Europe. This article will inquire specifically about the (national) influence
of a ‘country in transition’ (Bulgaria) on the territory of the city of Sofia. For reasons of feasibility
the article is limited to an exploration of the organisation of Bulgarian police. The following main
questions are answered in this article: (1) What is the nature of the division between the national
police apparatus and local policing bodies?, (2) Are tendencies towards fragmentation and centralisation
determined at the same time? and (3) Are tendencies towards private governance present
within the public domain? Answering these questions requires an exploration of the historical
and contextual background, so that insight into the related Bulgarian realities, particularly those
of Sofia, might be gained. This article explores the official arrangements regarding the policing of
crime and disorder in Sofia; it is based on desktop research, mostly internal research from t