The main objective of crime-fighting agencies, whether local or international, is to reduce crime by apprehending criminals. This involves identifying individuals involved in crime, locating and arresting them, and collecting evidence that can be used to convict and imprison them. At the national level, policing agencies work with agencies like Interpol to apprehend criminals involved in local and international crime. The effectiveness of immobilizing criminals help disrupt criminal activities and organizations, which in turn reduces crime. This demands coordination between the national and international policing agencies to ensure that intelligence shared will promote arrests of criminals. National governments and other policing agencies must tackle various issues during the globalization of crime and policing.
The first issue is determining how state crimes can be dealt with internationally. The successful apprehension of criminals requires three major elements: intelligence, evidence, and criminal. As these elements become disperse, it becomes difficult to find this information in the national government's physical jurisdiction, which makes it harder to enforce the law (Kwong, 2016) . Law enforcement sometimes face conflicts between agencies in a single jurisdiction or even between different jurisdictions in sovereign states. This means that sovereign states in the world have authority and power within their borders. Regardless of how strong a country is, it loses its authority after the criminal being pursued moves to another sovereign state. When dealing with crimes, the national government and international policing agencies must overcome this issue of border and sovereignty. In this case, the pursuant government can just offer requests for arrest and give evidence that the individual involved is a criminal based on the laws of the other nation (Bassiouni, 2008) . A common example is Edward Snowden, a US citizen, who released classified information to the public. He fled to seek asylum in Ecuador through Hong Kong. Even after the arrest warrant form the US government, the Hong Kong government was not satisfied with the information and therefore let Snowden fly to Moscow. This shows that extraterritorial law enforcement is a big issue in fighting crime, and governments have little power beyond their borders.
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Another issue of concern is cooperation. Many agencies work together at the international level to combat crime. This requires cooperation between agencies where officers from these agencies depend on their networks to take action against suspects and criminals due to the issue of judicial constrain (Gerpacher, 2005) . This cooperation may be at the macro, meso, or micro level. Macro-level cooperation involves constitutional and international agreements that have been made to fight crime. Interpol is an important example of police cooperation based on the meso level. Its operation is not based on treaties since it lacks the authority to arrest and detain individuals. Any international country can become a member of Interpol if its functions are in line with the Interpol framework. Interpol deals with different crimes, most of which revolve around violations of human rights, such as terrorism. For Interpol to intervene in some cases, countries that need help need to be members to facilitate the exchange of intelligence and apprehension of criminals (Interpol, 2020) . There are other international policing agencies, such as Europol, which act as a law enforcement agency for member countries. It deals with crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, money laundering, among others. It facilitates the exchange of information, analysis of intelligence, and notifying authorities when information is obtained concerning criminal offenses. This makes cooperation a major issue in fighting crime at both the national and international levels.
Another issue is defining crimes that national governments and international agencies act upon. Different sovereign states are governed by a constitution that defines crime and punishment for the crimes. However, the definition and type of crime may be invalid in some other territories. This often brings a problem when it comes to international policing. An individual may commit a crime in their country that has a certain punishment and then flee to another country where the crime is not considered capital. Despite the government's request for arrests, the criminal may not be apprehended due to a difference in policies. This, therefore, requires national and international agencies to define common crimes that should be dealt will both locally and internationally. Information about wanted individuals is color-coded to show the type of inquiry. Some codes used include red for arrest warrants, Blue for information about wanted individuals, among others. There are many alerts circulating the world, although some of them are often ignored. This is due to the different definition of soft and hard laws. Ignorance based on soft authority is caused by the delegation of authority or the far distance of the authority. This makes it hard to fight crime or share intelligence due to the ignorance or letting the notices go unnoticed. International policing agencies and national governments should first deal with this issue to reduce criminal activities in the world. Red alert crimes, such as terrorism, should be defined to give priority, although soft and hard law should be handled to facilitate the sharing of information.
Fighting crime is the goal of every agency, whether local or international. Apprehending criminals is based on three elements; intelligence, evidence, and the suspect. Having these elements are crucial in reducing crime at the national and international level. National governments and international policing agencies should share information to help in fighting crime. This can be done by overcoming issues like territorial boundaries and law enforcement, defining criminal acts internationally, and cooperating to share information. Handling these issues and challenges could be essential in reducing crime at the national and international levels.
References
Bassiouni, M. C. (2008). International Criminal Law (Third Edition ed.). Leiden, Netherlands: Martinus NIJHOFF Publishers.
Gerpacher, N. (2005). The Roles of International Police Cooperation Organizations. European Journal of Crime Criminal Law and Criminal Justice , 431-434. doi:10.1163/1571817054604100
Interpol . (2020). Retrieved from Interpol Website: https://www.interpol.int/en/Who-we-are/What-is-INTERPOL
Kwong, W. Y. (2016). Core Issues in Policing. Hong Kong: Educational Technology and Development Unit.
