Evaluating the ‘New Policing’: Attacking the Money Trail of Organized Crime *

After examining the growth of concern about organized crime, the article critically reviews the arguments advanced for focusing on the money trail as a strategy for combating it, suggesting that the amount of money laundered may be considerably less than that commonly assumed. It goes on to contrast the powerful imagery of ‘the new policing’ with the modesty of the impact of these measures on convictions and confiscated assets in Britain and Australia, and attempts to account for the low yield there compared with the US in terms of greater American concentration on financial and professional intermediaries and more draconian legislation. After discussing the debate over the involvement of the UK Security Service (MI5) in the ‘war against organized crime’ and technological developments in laundering detection, the article examines the tensions, (a) between high level policing on the one hand, and devolved police budgeting and community orientation on the other; and (b) in the attempt to regulate the social conscience of finance capital without making it impossible for them to make a profit.