ABSTRACT

Many criminologists consider that transnational policing in the Western hemisphere began in the mid-nineteenth century, as a result of the political upheavals and instability arising from the turbulent times of the late 1840s. Few academics have delved further back in time to see if this was actually the case. This chapter argues that the antecedents of transnational policing can be traced back to the activities of the Bow Street ‘Runners’, who operated from the mid-eighteenth century onward. It concentrates on their activities on the European continent in the first half of the nineteenth century and demonstrates through the use of several case studies that the ‘Runners’ and the Bow Street policing system can be seen as the instigators of modern-day transnational policing.