Police coordination is paramount when it comes to fighting crime. Transnational criminal organizations operate through borders, languages, and jurisdictions. They flow through every crack in the system, taking advantage of corruption in one country and poor regulation in another. Although a global investigative firm can coordinate an investigation flawlessly in multiple countries, government agencies need to negotiate bureaucratic procedures, language differences, and agency jurisdictions before they can even start digging into a matter. Criminals understand how difficult it is for most law enforcement agencies to coordinate multilateral investigations and they exploit that.
Historically, law enforcement has always worked to enhance collaboration among counties, states, and countries. Europol's creation in the 90s established a new standard in police coordination and information sharing. While other continents, like the Americas, replicated the effort in the 2000s, Ameripol was more an expression of goodwill than a structured and funded operation. Only five or six countries took it as an opportunity to collaborate on policing in the region. After over a decade, Ameripol improved training, communications, and police camaraderie in the region but never turned into the center of hemispheric investigations.
The Brazilian Minister of Justice and Public Safety noted that on November 9, participant countries of the Americas will sign a treaty to set the conditions for a new Ameripol. Without a doubt, the real opportunity for Ameripol 2.0 is the creation of a regional information sharing platform. The biggest challenge, however, will be funding.
On November 9, with the Treaty of Brasilia, Ameripol will have new potential, such as the exchange of strategic and operational data between member countries and between Ameripol and its strategic partners; the creation of joint investigation teams; the signing of strategic and operational agreements with Europol and cooperation agreements with Interpol, and the coordination of operations and investigations with other police blocs and other agencies on all continents.
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