Police Governance in the EU

Abstract

The dominant feature of police control, governance and accountability in the political context of the EU offers two main models in a liberal democracy. First is a national police force controlled solely by the national government — the concern here has always been that the police will be directed to look after the interests of the ruling political party in power. In such a constitutional set-up the police will embody the state with all the ramifications that it brings in relation to human rights, policing by public consent and police accountability. Sound legal safeguards would have to be in place to preserve the freedom of the individual. The alternative is local control of the police through regional or local government with elected politicians and police chiefs. Such a system would guarantee the existence of more than one police force, ensure local police accountability and be less of a threat from a strong central government looking after its own interests and having too much power over the police. There is a mix of these two models across the 27 EU member states.