25

Article

High and Low Policing in Post-9/11 Times

Jean-Paul Brodeur∗

Abstract The distinction between high and low policing is increasingly relevant in the wake of the terrorist

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attacks of 11 September 2001. The paper reviews the content of the high policing paradigm and addresses
recent criticism. Its first part provides an update of the defining features of high policing: absorbent
policing, power conflation, protection of the state and use of covert informants. It is, thereafter, argued that
the high and low distinction is considered to run deeper than anticipated by the various bodies reporting
on the policing and intelligence failure to prevent 9/11. In part three, the place of private security agencies
in high policing is assessed. Private high policing must be taken into account, but it only shares in some of
the defining features of high policing and is lacking in others. Finally, the contrast between high and low
policing is examined in relation to symbolic significance.

Introduction were increasingly involved in low policing

and vice versa (Brodeur, 2000/2005a). Brodeur
Since I took up the traditional French distinc- and Leman-Langlois (2006) also showed how
tion between high and low policing (Brodeur, much the US government was outsourcing
1983), it has sparked both interest (Marenin, to private contractors the protection of the
1996: 8; L’Heuillet, 2001: 39; Manning, 2003: country’s national security under the admin-
41 and 201; Manning, 2005: 24) and criti- istration of President George W. Bush. This
cism (Anderson et al., 1995: 169; O’Reilly and article is divided into four parts. First, I syn-
Ellison, 2006: 643–45). After reintroducing thesize previous work on the nature of high
this classic distinction, I applied it to the policing, focusing on aspects that I introduced
analysis of various forms of political polic- after 1983. Second, I revisit the issue of the
ing (Brodeur, 2003; Brodeur and Dupeyron, integration of high and low policing. Third,
2003). I also updated the notion of high polic- I discuss the extent of the privatization of
ing taking into account new developments in high policing. Lastly, I contrast high and low
the field. I argued that high policing agencies policing in respect to what they symbolize.

*Directeur Centre international de criminologie comparée, Montréal (Québec), Canada. E-mail: jean-
[email protected]
Policing, Volume 1, Number 1, pp. 25–37
doi:10.1093/policing/pam002
 The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
For permissions please e-mail: [email protected]
26 Policing Article J.-P. Brodeur

High and low policing: definition (‘faire de la police’; Madelin, 1930: i. 490).
and method Instead of the modern distinction between
policing and the police (Reiner, 1994: 715), we
The distinction between high and low policing had, then, a three-tiered construction: (a) ‘the
is asymmetrical. When I proposed it (Brodeur, police’—the dominant political regime and
1983), I was aiming to bring into focus a type prevailing order of things; (b) ‘policing’,
of policing that was in marked contrast with conceived as sundry police actions directly
everyday policing largely performed by agents devoted to bolstering the political regime or
in uniform. Agencies engaged in this type of indirectly pursuing this end through the pre-

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policing belong to the ‘intelligence commu- vention and repression of various kinds of
nity’. I called it ‘high policing’, borrowing crimes and disorder—in short, the produc-
from the French ‘haute police’. High policing tion of security; (c) ‘police’, this last word
was then neglected by research and still is, referring to the individual members of hybrid
despite its growing importance. The distinc- policing organizations using both public state
tion I drew was thus tipped in favor of high police and private entrepreneurs (mainly
policing, which I wanted to bring into focus, informants) of all kinds. Agents engaged in
and I never provided any characterization of governance—protecting ‘THE police’ (the
‘low policing’ in its own right. I will now try political order) of the realm, were performing
to remedy, at least in part, this oversight. ‘high policing’ tasks, as they were the execu-
Dr. Johnson acknowledged in his Dictionary tive arm of the monarch; police dispatching
of the English Language that the word ‘police’ the myriad of duties related to community
was borrowed from the French and meant security—Fouché referred to it as the policing
‘the regulation and government of a city or of lampposts (close to which often stood pros-
country, so far as regards the inhabitants’. titutes)—were doing ‘low policing’ and were
(Johnson, 1806: ii, ‘police’) This definition accountable to the judiciary. So, high and low
accords with that proposed to the Austrian policing originally referred to a scale of pres-
Empress Maria Theresa, by J.C.P. Lenoir, one tige according to how close to the seat of power
of the noted French General Lieutenant of the police was. In our time, agencies such as
Police: police is ‘the science of governing men the British MI5 and MI6, the FBI domestic
and to do them good’ (Lenoir, 1779: 34). Orig- political policing units and the CIA2 , and the
inally, the word ‘police’ was synonymous with French DST (Direction de la surveillance du
the word ‘governance’.1 Napoleon’s Minister territoire) are involved in high policing.
of Police, Joseph Fouché, who articulated the High policing is characterized by four fea-
concept of high policing, made an explicit dis- tures (Brodeur, 1983: 513–14; Brodeur, 2006:
tinction between establishing a political order 181–190; also see O’Reilly and Ellison, 2006:
(‘faire la police’) and doing piecemeal policing 643–645; Marenin, 1982).

1
The French word ‘police’ comes from the Greek ‘polis’, which means ‘city’ (the polity). The word kept its Greek meaning of
polity in French. For the French, as for Dr. Johnson, ‘the police’ was an abstract notion and did not refer to an agency or a
group of men.
2
There are officially sixteen agencies of this type in the United States, 80% of the intelligence budget being under the
responsibility of the Pentagon. For the list of US high policing agencies, (see United States, 2004: 406–07; this is the 9/11
Commission report).
Policing in Post-9/11 Times Article Policing 27

Absorbent policing democracies where all Cabinet ministers also

sit in Parliament, there is less of a distinc-
High policing agencies collate data, process tion between the executive and the legislative
them into intelligence (analyzed informa- branches of government than in the US ‘checks
tion) and threat assessments, disseminate their and balance’ model. Notwithstanding these
intelligence products on a need-to-know basis, differences of emphasis, all democracies con-
store them in various formats for a time and demn government interference in judicial pro-
finally dispose of them when they have lost ceedings. Things are noticeably different for
their relevance. There are two fundamental high policing. Under the continental monar-

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differences between high policing (or security) chies of Europe, the police magistrate enjoyed
intelligence and low policing (or criminal) all three fundamental powers: he could estab-
intelligence. The first one is a difference in lish penal statutes that even carried the death
scope. Police forces collect intelligence perti- penalty; he would also preside at trials; finally,
nent for building criminal cases. In contrast, he exercised, by definition, all forms of exec-
there seems to be no limit to the appetite for utive powers. The concept of the political
information of the security services: the CIA’s ‘coup’ had an original meaning from the 17th
World Factbook posted on the Internet gives to the 19th century that directly contradicted
basic information on nearly every country of its present sense: a political coup was a deci-
the world, focussing on their crime and secu- sive action of the State against its enemies
rity problems.3 The second contrast between and not an action perpetrated against the
security and criminal intelligence concerns one State by its opponents in order to change the
kind of ‘actionable intelligence’ (intelligence regime, as the concept is presently understood
that will spur an agency to undertake pub- (L’Heuillet, 2001: 47, quoting Gabriel Naudé,
lic proceedings going beyond overt or covert 1639/1988). The high police magistrate had
surveillance, e.g. performing an arrest and the prime responsibility for such governance
charging a suspect).4 For the police, intelli- through executive coups. I will argue in a
gence is just a means to the end of making further section of this paper that we may be
a case. Security intelligence agencies have a experiencing a resurgence of this mode of
much greater tendency to absorb intelligence, governance in the post-9/11 era.
translating it into action only when there are
no more justifiable alternatives. Protection of national security

Conflation of separate powers This is the raison d’être of high policing.

The mandate of many security intelligence
We traditionally distinguish between legisla- agencies explicitly mentions that their prime
tive, judicial and executive power. In democ- objective is to protect the security of the
racies, these powers are exercised indepen- nation. There are two quite different vari-
dently one of the other. In Westminster-style ants of this feature. In its democratic variant,

3 Go to https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.htlm
4
It must be added, that for some high policing agencies, e.g. the CIA, Israel’s Shin Bet and Mossad, or the French foreign
intelligence service, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, (DGSE), actionable intelligence also triggers special
operations aimed at neutralizing an opponent.
28 Policing Article J.-P. Brodeur

high policing agencies are tasked to protect as it thrives on betrayal and fosters mutual
the nation’s political institutions and con- suspicion and demoralization (Funder, 2003).
stitutional framework. In its nondemocratic I initially developed the preceding ideas
variant, high policing is devoted to the preser- from first-hand documentary research into
vation of a particular political regime that may the files of Canadian intelligence services. I was
consist in the hegemony of a political party or granted access to these classified files by being
the rule of a dictator. Distinguishing these vari- director of research of a Quebec government
ants of national security is necessary to avoid commission of inquiry that possessed judicial
falling into the leftist fallacy that intelligence powers. I kept on working, until today, for var-

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services are by nature unpalatable to a democ- ious commissions of inquiry that investigated
racy. It must, however, be understood that directly or tangentially high policing. One does
the immediate object of high policing is the not need such powers of access to do research
protection of the state apparatus (e.g. protect- into high policing. However, this research
should be measured against exacting standards
ing the head of the state against assassination),
of accuracy and should not rest wholly on
although protecting the state may also result in
extrapolations from the published literature.
protecting its citizens (e.g. against terrorism).
Including various forms of policing, activ-
The use of informants
ity in the category of high policing depends
on whether it displays several of the features
In police parlance, an informant is called presented above. Fitting all police ‘knowledge
a human source. When the high policing work’ into high policing results in inflating it
paradigm was developed, human sources were to the point that it loses its heuristic value.
the main instrument of covert surveillance
(Marx, 1974). We now have created a massive
The problematic integration of
high and low policing
arsenal of technological tools for the purposes
of surveillance (Marx, 1988: chapter 10). All of
It cannot be denied that for a period of time
our natural senses—eyesight, hearing, smel, spanning roughly between the 1989 fall of the
touch (lie detectors) and even tasting (poison Berlin Wall and the 11 September 2001 (9/11)
detecting devices)—now have multiple tech- terrorist attacks on the United States, there
nological surrogates. Despite the fact that we were strong initiatives—particularly on the
use a comprehensive array of stealthy technical part of the intelligence community seeking a
sources, I still single out human sources and new mandate—to blend high and low polic-
undercover operatives as the hallmark of high ing. Since the end of the Cold war, security
policing. As shown by the public release of intelligence agencies were entering domains
the East German Stasi5 archives, the extensive that were traditional law enforcement ter-
infiltration of human sources is the culmina- ritory, such as organized crime (Brodeur,
tion of high policing. Not only is it the most 2000/2005a; also see Anderson et al., 1995:
intrusive instrument of surveillance, but it is 173). On the other hand, police forces tried to
also the most destructive of the social fabric establish centralized criminal intelligence units

5 From the German Staatsicherheit —State Security.

Policing in Post-9/11 Times Article Policing 29

and were increasingly implied in the struggle Shelby also quoted one former director of the
against transnational crime (Anderson et al., National Security Agency to the effect that
1995: 168–70). The situation changed dras- ‘cops’ cannot do the work of ‘spies’ (United
tically at the turn of the 21st century with States, 2002: 74). Senator Shelby concluded
the advent of global mass terrorism, which that ‘Intelligence analysts would doubtless make
afflicted not only the United States (9/11), poor policemen, and it has become very clear
but Indonesia (October 2002, with many Aus- that policemen make poor intelligence analysts’
tralian victims), Spain (March 2003), Morocco (United States, 2002, 62). His diagnosis of
(May 2003), Saudi Arabia (May 2004) and the the FBI’s grievous shortcoming in the field

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UK (July 2005). It is premature to assess the of counterterrorist intelligence was confirmed
impact of the July 2005 bombings in London, by the recommendations of the 9/11 Commis-
but they have already spurred the Terrorism sion (United States, 2004: 400). In Canada, the
Act 2006, increasing the period of preventive existence of a ‘wall’ between criminal inves-
detention without charge from 14 to 28 days.6 tigation and security intelligence was tellingly
In the United States, the many commissions confirmed by the remarks of the former Com-
that investigated why the US policing agencies missioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted
of every stripe failed to prevent 9/11 came up Police (RCMP) on intelligence-led policing
with findings that stressed the gap between (ILP), which was developed mainly in the UK
high and low policing. In Canada, two gov- (see National Centre for Police Excellence,
ernment commissions of inquiry emphasized 2005). In a public talk given in 2005, ex-RCMP
the same point. Commissioner Zaccardelli remarked that ILP
‘reeks of secret service, spy agency work—the
The wall against contamination capital ‘I’ in ‘Intelligence’ (Zaccardelli, 2005).

Of all US government inquiries into the intelli- Intelligence versus evidence

gence and law enforcement failures that led to
9/11, none is more provocative than the ‘Addi- The overwhelming issue of contention
tional Views’ of Senator Richard C. Shelby between law enforcement agencies and secu-
to a report by the US Senate Select Com- rity intelligence services stems from what
mittee on Intelligence (SSCI: United States, Senator Shelby called the police ‘tyranny of
2002). One of the FBI agents involved in the Casefile’ (United States, 2002: 62). All law
the investigation of the 2001 bombing of enforcement agencies are geared to convicting
the USS Cole testified before the SSCI on perpetrators in criminal proceedings. Due to
the existence of a ‘wall’ separating criminal the public nature of these proceedings, intel-
police investigations from security intelligence ligence agencies are extremely reluctant to
to preserve ‘against contaminating criminal share information with police organizations
investigators with intelligence information’ because they fear that their sources and meth-
(quoted in United States, 2002: 51). Senator ods will be disclosed in criminal proceedings.

6
In respect to the flow of information, it does not seem that the UK policing forces fared much better than their US
counterparts. It is now recognized that Sir Ian Blair, the head of the Metropolitan Police, was kept in the dark for least 24 h on
the true circumstances of the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes.
30 Policing Article J.-P. Brodeur

In Canada, this friction between high and Interruption and circumvention

low policing has a persistent character. From
1969 until the present day, there is not one The conflicting requirements of intelligence
government body that examined the relations production and evidence disclosure are com-
between the Canadian intelligence commu- ponents of a more wide-ranging contrast
nity and the RCMP that did not explicitly refer between the police and intelligence services
to the divorce between secret intelligence and sub-cultures. The professional culture of a
public court evidence. This divorce was starkly security service, whether police or civilian, was
illustrated in the wake of the two 1985 terrorist described by the Quebec Keable and Duchaı̂ne

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bombings of Air India and CP Air flights that Commissions, of which I was in both cases
took off from Canadian airports. These bomb Director of Research (Québec, 1981a,b; also
attempts attributed to Sikh terrorists killed see Brodeur, 1981). Between November 1970
331 people, making them, by very far, the and 1973, the counterterrorist unit of the
most costly acts of terrorism in human lives in police of Montreal transformed the Front de
the history of Canada. In the first stage of the Libération du Québec (FLQ; Quebec Libera-
police investigation, members of the Canadian tion Front) into a police colony by riddling it
Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) destroyed with police informants. It limited its action to
audiotapes that may have provided crucial monitoring lesser crimes (e.g. fire-bombing)
evidence to the police in order to protect the while steering the group through its infor-
identity of their informants. This enduring mants into a direction where it progressively
conflict between CSIS and the RCMP was stopped being a real threat. More than 20
alleged to have been the source of the fail- years later, the Security Intelligence Review
ure of the Canadian policing agencies to solve Committee (SIRC) that oversees the Cana-
these cases. A commission of inquiry into the dian CSIS rediscovered this security service
bungled investigation was established in 2006 culture of circumvention: ‘We are also cog-
(the Commission of Inquiry into the Investiga- nizant of the danger that in destroying one
tion of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182). group, as opposed to watching it, another
The terms of reference of the Commission one which is worse may be created’ (SIRC,
directs it to inquire into ‘the manner in which 1994: Section 13.11). In contrast, the police
the Canadian government should address the piecemeal build unrelated individual cases to
challenge (. . . ) of establishing a reliable and interrupt criminal activities. Such interrup-
workable relationship between security intel- tions are sometimes durable and even final.
ligence and evidence that can be used in a In many cases, they are only temporary. The
criminal trial’. I was asked by the Commission intelligence service culture of circumvention
to submit a report dealing with this issue fosters conspiracy theory and mythology. Nev-
(among others). ertheless, it is grounded in fact.7

7 In a special report, US Judge Charles Breitel documented the extent of the infiltration by the FBI of two Trotskyite leftist
political parties (Breitel, 1980). The leadership of these parties was in part comprised of FBI informants. See also Gary
Marx’s seminal article (1974). In 2006, the RCMP and CSIS arrested seventeen persons in Toronto—among them were four
teens—suspected of being involved in a bomb plot. It was revealed by the media that it was an RCMP informant who procured
Policing in Post-9/11 Times Article Policing 31

The hybridization of high policing hybridization of high policing, I raise three

further issues in this respect.
Since the pioneering work of Shearing and
Stenning (1981) on the growth of the pri- Data and symbols
vate security industry and the groundbreaking
introduction of the concept of hybrid policing O’Reilly and Ellison’s reconceptualization of
organizations (Johnston, 1992), the issue of high policing is part of a current trend stress-
private high policing needs to be addressed. ing the growth of private security, with its
The historical role of private security agen- attendant hypothetical consequences of mul-
tilateralization (Bayley and Shearing, 2001),

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cies such as Pinkerton, in the high policing of
labor relations in the United States during nodal governance (Shearing and Wood, 2003),
the 19th century is fully recognized, pri- nodal security (Shearing, 2005) and security
vate agencies having played a key part in networks (Dupont, 2006). This programmatic
crushing the violent Mollie Maguire move- theorizing is long on concepts and short
ment (Weiss, 1986). In a 2006 reformulation on facts. The empirical evidence is generally
of the high policing paradigm, the trend selective, spotty and anecdotal, with notable
towards contracting out to private corpora- exceptions such as Dupont (2006). The empir-
tions surveillance operations in the United ical basis for asserting the ‘prolific expansion
States and abroad was acknowledged, and so of private security in recent years’ (O’Reilly
were the high police ideological underpin- and Ellison, 2006: 643) is provided by the oft-
nings of preserving the dominant political quoted piece by De Waard (1999). De Waard is
regime rather than protecting individual cit- actually much less sweeping in his conclusions
izens (Brodeur and Leman–Langlois, 2006: than he is offered to be. For De Waard (1999:
179).8 High policing is skewed policing: it tilts 169) the bottom line is that ‘the private secu-
towards the state. O’Reilly and Ellison (2006: rity industry in Europe is the secondary source
647) have argued that this discriminatory ori- of protection, while it is the primary in North
entation of high policing did not exclusively America and elsewhere (Australia and South
play in favor of the state: ‘while public high Africa—the latter being the ‘‘absolute cham-
policing protects against the subversion of the pion’’)’ (De Waard, 1999: 169). In point of
state, private high policing protects against fact, there is not one European Union country
the subversion of the client’ (my emphasis). where the number of private security agents
This statement is ambiguous because it fails to is greater than the number of public police,
mention that there is only one state to protect, the ratio of private security/police personnel
whereas there are many clients that may have per 100,000 inhabitants being tipped in favor
conflicting interests. Although agreeing with of the latter, particularly in Mediterranean
the need to acknowledge the public–private countries: Greece (0.05), Italy (0.16), Spain

explosives for the terrorists. Neither the RCMP nor CSIS offered a denial of this media report. None of the suspects have yet
been sent to trial.
8
The following private corporations were explicitly mentioned: Raytheon, Syntek Technologies, Booz Allen, Hamilton Inc.,
Hicks and Associates, Microsoft, Intel and Veridian Corporation (Brodeur and Leman–Langlois, 2006: 179).
32 Policing Article J.-P. Brodeur

(0.28), France (0.31), Portugal (0.35), not to respect to these case studies, I would propose
mention Austria (0.21), a non-Mediterranean the following hypothesis: the higher the stakes
country (De Waard, 1999: 156, Table VII). The in security the more will the responsibilities
surge in private security personnel is for now of public government be (re)asserted. This
largely limited to Anglo-Saxon and African hypothesis rests on two considerations that
countries, particularly South Africa. In the are generally neglected by the private secu-
UK, the number of private security guards is rity theorists. The first one is the need for
shortly to overcome the number of profes- legitimacy in the provision of security; the
sional police (Crawford, 2003: 149). This kind second one is the issue of symbolic power: it

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of statistic is misleading because it compares is very largely ignored within the nodal gov-
two categories of security personnel that have ernance framework, which mistakenly places
very different attributes and powers (Nalla and every security provider (‘node’) on the same
Newman, 1991). Furthermore, the countries symbolic power footing.
where the number of private guards tends to
overcome the number of professional police The high policing continuum
are not the countries where the high policing
model originated from. As previously said, the conflation of legal,
In Anglo-Saxon countries, the majority of judicial and executive power is one of the
private security personnel are involved in low defining aspects of high policing. Joseph
policing, as I will try to suggest all-too-briefly Fouché, the main craftsman of high polic-
through two case studies. (a) Brodeur (2005b) ing and Napoleon’s police Minister, also had
presents the findings of an empirical inquiry under his purview the French prison system.
into homicide investigation. I was given access In 1808, he reported to the Emperor on the
to all the homicide files of one of the largest various categories of persons incarcerated in
urban police forces in Canada, and have built France following a ‘high policing order’ (une
a data bank of 153 resolved investigations mesure de haute police). Among these were
between 1990 and 2001. There is not one ‘inmates not tried nor brought before a court
of them where private investigators played of law for fear of seeing them acquitted for lack
any role, this finding being confirming by an of legal evidence’.9 Coming back to the future,
extensive review of the research literature on the European Parliament recently pronounced
homicide investigation. (b) The screening of on a Report on ‘the alleged use of European
airport passengers and their luggage was for a countries by the CIA for the transportation
long time performed by private security agen- and illegal detention of prisoners’ (European
cies. After 9/11, the Canadian government Parliament, 2006). The report states that the
created the public Canadian Air Transport US programme of extraordinary rendition:
Security Administration, for which I am a . . . is an extra-judicial practice
Consultant. Its mandate was to take over the whereby an individual suspected of
responsibilities for air transport security from involvement in terrorism is illegally
the private security agencies, which did not abducted, arrested and/or trans-
enjoy a high level of public confidence. With ferred into the custody of US officials

9 Quoted in Madelin (1930: 502); original Fouché manuscripts AFiv, 1314 and AFiv, 1320, no. 20).
Policing in Post-9/11 Times Article Policing 33

and/or transported to another coun- sentence under the most punitive of con-
try for interrogation which, in the ditions. Second, there is a wishful quality
majority of cases, involves incom- to the withering-of-the-State resurgent neo-
municado detention and torture. Marxian utopianism, where nodal governance
(European Parliament, 2006: para- takes the former place of the dictatorship of
graph 27) the proletariat. In fact, the State has never been
as arrogantly unilateral as it is now behaving
It is further said that at least 1,245 flights in the United States, the United Kingdom and
operated by the CIA have flown into Euro- in Canada.

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pean airspace or stopped over at European The sharing of information: I will briefly
airports (European Parliament, 2006: para- mention that hybrid private/public security
graph 32). A Canadian citizen, Mr. Maher networks face even greater impediments to
Arar, was arrested in New York on 26 Septem- the sharing of information than public ones,
ber 2002 by the FBI, as he was coming back which follow the same rules. According to Lip-
from holidays in Tunisia, on the faith of inac- pert and O’Connor (2006: 64), private security
curate intelligence supplied by the RCMP. He firms share intelligence on a highly selective
was transferred by US authorities to a Syrian basis among each other and with the public
prison where he was questioned incommuni- police: ‘They share intelligence with the public
cado and tortured from 9 to 22 October 2002. police when their clients are private citizens,
Due to the heroic efforts of his wife, he was but largely exclude the public police from
freed on 5 October 2003. A Canadian govern- the network when their clients are corporate’.
ment commission of inquiry was appointed to Ocqueteau (1997) made the same point in
investigate into this affair (Canada, 2006a,b). France, stressing that in-house security agen-
It concluded that Mr. Arar was innocent of cies considered all information relating to their
respective clients to be confidential and not to
all allegations made against him and he was
be shared.
awarded in January 2007 some ten million dol-
lars ($Can.) in compensation for his rendition.
The government has decided to investigate Symbolic resonance
the rendition to Egypt and Syria of two other
Canadian citizens: Mm. El Maati and Almaki. The high policing agency of Canada was for-
The upshot of these remarks is twofold. merly part of a police force—the RCMP—just
First, it shows that reducing high policing to as the US domestic high policing agency is now
covert knowledge work—expert consultancy part of a police organization—the FBI. In the
and secret investigations—is much too nar- second half of the last century, the Canadian
row. Under the US umbrella of a delusional government created several commissions to
state of war proclaimed by the George W. Bush examine whether its security service should
administration, high policing combines all remain within the RCMP or operate as a sepa-
powers: it makes covert executive orders that rate civilian high policing agency. The govern-
supersede the law, keeps suspects in unlim- ment finally chose the latter course in 1984 on
ited preventive custody, wants them tried by the basis of an argument that was formulated
Star Chamber commissions and applies the earlier by the Mackenzie Commission: since a
34 Policing Article J.-P. Brodeur

security service will inevitably be involved in law (United States, 2002: 53). However, this
clandestine actions at odds with the law, and culture of institutionalized wrongdoing does
at times infringing on a person’s civil rights, not undermine the legitimacy of high polic-
its mission is incompatible with the duties of ing for two reasons. First, it is covered either
a police organization (Canada, 1969: 21). implicitly or explicitly by the authority of the
The police are the most conspicuous sym- state (e.g. the assassination of opponents of
bol of the law (indeed, they are referred to in Israel by its security service). Second, it is jus-
familiar language as ‘the law’). This is particu- tified on the (battle) ground that in order to
larly true in respect to its lower policing arm, defeat the enemy you may have to use the

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the patrol persons in uniform, who use their same tactics.10
visibility to produce a great deal of their deter- Where would private high policing fit in
rent/reassuring effects. High policing agencies the symbolic structure? It seems to me that
symbolize the power of the state, at times in private policing whether high or low is weak
its most arbitrary aspects. In contrast with the on symbolic power. Furthermore, if private
police, the intelligence services base their sym- high policing attempted to move towards the
bolic power on their low visibility, thriving coercive end of the high policing continuum,
on rumors, innuendo and fear. Nevertheless, it would lose all legitimacy and its opera-
the research literature on the police stress tives would potentially be publicly prosecuted.
that policing is a ‘tainted’ occupation (Bittner, These hypotheses need to be confirmed. What
1990: 100) and that the police are involved is clear, however, is that the symbolic dimen-
in ‘dirty work’ (Waddington, 2005: 376). This sions—or lack of them—of private policing
apparent contradiction between policing and should be the focus of more study.
police research is in great part dissolved when
we distinguish between reality and symbol. Conclusion
Despite the fact that the police may, in reality,
often break the law, it is not admissible to My discussion of the defining features of
grant symbolic legitimacy to these violations high policing focussed on aspects that had
because it would clash with the culture of received so far little attention in the aca-
trust binding police and citizens (Manning, demic literature. Absorbent policing implies
2003: 3 and 11–12). The symbolic resonance that the use of intelligence as evidence in
of high policing agencies is the opposite: their public court proceedings is a thorny under-
lawlessness is the foundation of their mythol- taking that is often strongly resisted. The high
ogy. The rogue culture fostered by fiction and policing conflation of powers meant to be
by the media is that an intelligence agency separate in a democracy generates a high polic-
is efficient in proportion to its disrespect of ing continuum that ranges from knowledge
all rules; agents are even being blamed for work to coercive practices and violent covert
being too fastidious in their respect for the operations. Distinguishing between protecting

10Because of its extreme nature, torture reveals the unbridgeable gap between high and low policing. Not only was it never
advocated to torture organized crime bosses, but it is rather unthinkable that promoters of torture such as Dershowitz (2002)
and Yoo (2006) could have made their case in any other respect than counterterrorism and still be part of the faculty of
prestigious law schools (Harvard for Alan Dershowitz, and Berkeley for John Yoo).
Policing in Post-9/11 Times Article Policing 35

the constitutional and institutional framework finds its most literal application with the
of a nation from perpetuating a particular war on terrorism declared by the George W.
regime that might be otherwise rejected, makes Bush administration (Simon, 2007: 4). This
it possible to consider that high policing is not administration has been governing through
contradictory with democracy. Finally, despite terrorism using high policing means since 11
the growing reliance on technical sources, the September 2001.
infiltration of human informants remains the
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