This thesis explores the challenges posed to democratic legitimacy by current practices of EU counter-terrorism policing. It is concerned with the increasing amount of international cooperation between police and, to a lesser extent, intelligence actors in this field and analyses how far traditional mechanisms of accountability and oversight are keeping up with this development. For this purpose, the thesis develops a model of democratic legitimacy for the field of international counter-terrorism co-operation. The EU – like its Member States – understands itself to be based on principles of representative liberal democracy and the model follows roughly this idea by identifying parliamentary and judicial scrutiny as key instruments to ensure ‘democratic’ counter-terrorism actions and the protection of human rights. Drawing on the literature on security networks, it is proposed that current forms of counterterrorism policing under the EU’s umbrella should be understood as networks which are defined as sets of expert institutional nodes or individual agents from at least two countries that are interconnected in order to authorize and/or provide security with regard to counter-terrorism for the benefit of the network participants or external ‘clients’. The empirical focus of this thesis is on the European Police Office (Europol) which provides a key example in which to explore the emergence and current status quo of EU counter-terrorism policing. In addition, debates about the EUUS exchange of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, the so-called Prüm arrangements concerning intensified counter-terrorism co-operation in the EU, the freezing of terrorist funds as well as European involvement in the CIA’s so-called extraordinary rendition campaign are interwoven into this discussion. The thesis concludes that the EU is an emerging counter-terrorism actor, but that – for the time being – its policies and actions are insufficiently subject to parliamentary and judicial scrutiny. Challenges arise, in particular, from the international nature of counter-terrorism networks, their loose structure, the variety of actors involved and the strengthened co-operation between police and intelligence authorities.

Recent negatively publicized police-citizen interactions in the media, followed by a subsequent rise in crime rates in the United States, has been named the Ferguson Effect. The Ferguson Effect has been explored by prominent scholars in the criminal justice community; however, little is known about how police officers in small police agencies perceive the Ferguson Effect. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of police officers regarding the Ferguson Effect in small police agencies, as well as police officers' perceptions of their own organizational justice. The theoretical framework for this study was Greenberg's theory of organizational justice. Research questions focused on exploring police officers' perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of the Ferguson Effect phenomenon and willingness to partner with the community. A qualitative phenomenological study design was employed, using purposeful random sampling and semistructured interviews of 9 active sworn law enforcement personnel in southcentral Virginia. Data were analyzed through In Vivo coding, pattern coding, and structural analysis utilizing NVivo 11 Pro. Themes included: (a) racial division, (b) rush to judgment, and (c) steadfast leadership. Findings indicated participants demanded clear and fair policies and procedures from leadership, increased effort of transparency in policing, feelings of racial tension, and the need to regain community trust post-Ferguson. Implications for social change include refinement and development of leadership training for police leadership and refinement in organizational policies that support fairness, community engagement, and community interaction.