Project Turnstone: Successful Collaboration and Collaboration Obstacles in Police, Border, and Coast Guard Cooperation

Project Turnstone is a collaborative project funded in part by the European Commission. The project is an initiative by the Stockholm Police. Collaborating partners in the project are the Swedish Coast Guard, Region Northeast; the Helsinki Police; the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District; the Police and Border Guard Board in Estonia; the State Border Guard of the Republic of Latvia; and the State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania. The aim of this project is to decrease trans-boundary criminality and improve day-to-day cooperation between border officers in the Baltic Sea region. This study analyses this collaborative project, especially the intelligence and operative joint activities conducted during the implementation of Project Turnstone. What is unique about the Turnstone model is the implementation of the operative action week, during which officers have the chance to exchange, share, and cooperate with immediate action in the same office using their own information channels. The purpose of the study is to map and analyse how the staff of the different organizations experience, understand, and define successful cooperation and the collaboration obstacles encountered during cooperation with neighbouring organizations. The study is qualitative and based on ethnographically gathered material, including field observations at
the different border agencies and qualitative interviews. A total of 73 interviews were conducted with border officers, police officers, border guards, and coast guard officers from the participating organizations. The interviewed officers view Project Turnstone as a rare opportunity for close, personal cooperation through which officers can build strong police, border, and coast guard networks and increase and strengthen previous cooperative practices. This cooperation is possible due to colocation and interpersonal interactions in which officers can learn about each other’s organizational
practices, establish trust, and achieve the same goals. On the other hand, language and communication difficulties, differences in national legislation, and fear that the opportunities for joint action weeks and close cooperation will diminish after the termination of Project Turnstone were raised as obstacles to collaboration. Nonetheless, interviewed officers shared a common sense of purpose and motivation and viewed close interpersonal cooperation as the best way of protecting the EU and Schengen area from criminality in the Baltic Sea area.