On October 24th, a group of 25 EU Studies students were treated to a look behind the scenes at Europol's headquarters in The Hague. Security is tight for such an organisation, yet our host, an ex-Austrian policeman, had to give up his powers of arrest before taking up his new post here. Europol is the linchpin between 250 law enforcement agencies in Europe, so key activities include liaison between forces, and combining and analyzing data from around the EU. In their 19 years, they've grown from 50 to 720 staff, and now offer very specialized skills in the areas of cybercrime, anti-terrorism, counterfeiting, money laundering and Carin (asset recovery from criminal activity). From the Q&A session at the end of our visit, two things were very clear. Europol provides a unique facility that no single force could perform alone, and Europol's focus is on facts rather than politics.