ABSTRACT
Police co-operative efforts in the contemporary period have been enhanced by the 'information revolution'. In order to metaphorically map the routes of transnational policing this essay has assumed a vantage point standing at the crossroads of anthropology, criminology, the sociology of information and communications technology and international relations. Policing agencies are all being revolutionized as they adopt new methods of handling and exchanging knowledge, and the convergence of police systems that comes in the wake of this is ongoing, irrespective of efforts to create transnational policing structures or to restructure national systems. The enhancement of supra-national police entities has been pursued on the basis that they are the single most important key to enhancing policing effectiveness across the European 'internal security field'. Further, macro-level police organization aimed to centralize data storage and handling, whether it be Interpol's Automated Search Facility, the Schengen Information System or national systems like the UK's National Criminal Intelligence Service.
