The future of policing is set to be a perpetual race where threat actors, particularly criminals and terrorists, ride the wave of three megatrends – globalisation, urbanisation and new technologies – to strengthen their nexus and outsmart the law. The role of law enforcement agencies is increasingly intertwined with national security as they face these threats by countering cybercrime, leveraging technology to protect global cities, and employing identity-management systems to secure borders.

Two overarching hurdles could be discerned from the Interpol Congress which the agencies need to surmount to stay ahead of the threats: the first is to strengthen the culture of innovation in their organisations; the second is to enhance partnerships with the private sector.

…Muhammad Faizal bin Abdul Rahman is a Research Fellow with the Homeland Defence Programme at the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS), a unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.