According to Eurostat, there are about 1.49 million police officers in the EU (2019) and that number is relatively stable since 1999. It means that there is one police officer for every 299 inhabitants in the EU (average 2017-2019), or 334 police officers per 100 000 inhabitants (see figure 2).'° The lowest number of police officers per 100 000 inhabitants is in Finland (137.8), followed by Denmark (190.6), and Sweden (198.4). In nine EU Member States (Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Malta, Portugal, Latvia, Italy, Bulgaria and Slovakia) the figure is over 400 police officers per 100 000 inhabitants. The history, development and structure of law enforcement agencies vary from one Member State to another. Police organisations across the EU form a wide spectrum from highly centralised institutions with a small number of national police forces (such as France, Italy, and Spain), regional centralisation under federal authority (like Germany, the Netherlands or Austria) and decentralised police systems (like Belgium). These differences laid aside, every single law enforcement agency across the EU relies heavily on the support and acceptance of the people. “A// democratic police systems share the ideal that police powers are to be used according to the rule of law and not according to the whims of the ruler or the police agent.”'' Across Europe, police forces have sought to fulfil this mandate by bolstering their use-of-force policies, amending hiring and recruitment practices, and instituting new training methods and priorities. However, George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police, in May 2020, has sparked more public displays of indignation than any instance of police brutality in our own EU countries. His death resonated and fuelled a new level of awareness across the EU for tackling unfair policing and promoting police oversight and accountability. The crisis of confidence in police and in the legitimacy of their actions that has characterised the
