The United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres said that cooperation across borders enables law‑enforcement agencies to better protect survivors, apprehend perpetrators and advance safety for all.
On 6 September 2026, the United Nations marked the International Day of Police Cooperation by highlighting the importance of cross-border collaboration in addressing organised crime and the increasingly significant role of cyber-enabled offences. The observance emphasised that transnational criminal networks operate across jurisdictions and increasingly exploit digital technologies, requiring law enforcement agencies to cooperate beyond national borders and strengthen their ability to exchange information, develop common approaches and respond collectively to emerging threats.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that effective international cooperation enables law enforcement agencies to better support survivors, apprehend perpetrators, disrupt criminal networks and enhance safety. This cooperation is supported by a range of international mechanisms and organisations. INTERPOL, which connects police forces in 196 countries, provides a critical infrastructure for international police cooperation and information-sharing. United Nations Police, under the leadership of Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, provide advisory, training and capacity-building support to national police institutions, with a particular emphasis on strengthening policing institutions that are effective, accountable and responsive to the communities they serve.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) contributes technical assistance to States in addressing transnational organised crime, while the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Policing facilitates greater coherence between policing-related activities across the UN system. Together, these mechanisms illustrate that international security increasingly depends on the ability of institutions to combine operational cooperation with sustained institutional development and capacity building.
A concrete example highlighted during the observance was cooperation between law enforcement authorities in Côte d’Ivoire and Switzerland, facilitated through INTERPOL, which contributed to the dismantling of a phishing operation responsible for defrauding Swiss victims of more than $1.4 million. The case illustrates the practical value of international information-sharing and coordinated law enforcement action in confronting cyber-enabled criminality. It also demonstrates how offences conducted through digital infrastructure can rapidly transcend national jurisdictions, making traditional nationally bounded approaches to policing increasingly insufficient.
The theme of this year’s International Day of Police Cooperation — “Protecting against Vulnerability – Building Trust and Legitimacy in Policing” — adds an important institutional and societal dimension to this discussion. Acting Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism Alexandre Zouev similarly emphasised the importance of police institutions earning the confidence of the communities they serve. Trust, legitimacy and accountability are therefore not peripheral considerations but increasingly important components of effective security responses, including in the digital environment.
The broader message is particularly relevant to the evolving cybersecurity landscape. Digital technologies have transformed both the capabilities available to law enforcement and the operating environment of criminal networks. Phishing, online fraud, cybercrime, illicit financial activity and digitally facilitated organised crime can involve perpetrators, infrastructure, victims and financial flows located across multiple jurisdictions. Effective responses consequently require not only technical capabilities, but also interoperable institutions, trusted channels of cooperation, appropriate legal and policy frameworks, and sustained investment in professional capacity.
Why does it matter?
This underlines that cybercrime can no longer be considered solely a technical or specialist law enforcement issue. It sits increasingly at the intersection of digital governance, international cooperation, institutional resilience, human security and public trust. Understanding how States and international organisations develop mechanisms to cooperate across borders — while ensuring that security responses remain accountable, inclusive and rights-respecting — is therefore essential to understanding the wider evolution of the global digital governance landscape.
This perspective connects cybersecurity and cybercrime to the broader governance of digital technologies: how institutions cooperate, how norms and policies are developed, how trust is maintained in an increasingly interconnected environment, and how digital technologies can be governed in ways that strengthen resilience while protecting fundamental rights. It also illustrates why developments in policing and international security increasingly form part of the wider digital policy debate, rather than remaining confined to the law-enforcement or cybersecurity communities.
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