Police Stops: A Comparative Perspective on Governance

This chapter introduces the question of governance, as it relates to police officers’ use of their powers to stop members of the public, and mechanisms to ensure these practices are open to challenge, transparent and accountable. We highlight key definitional issues and gaps in the literature and outline the various legal frameworks at play across our European Police Stops COST Action network. The complexity of the governance of police stops is influenced by the legal system, the approach to policing, the political structure and types of governance, including state and non-governmental control mechanisms. Given that the role of these factors varies across countries, we have adopted a thematic and comparative approach in this volume. Having outlined this approach and its limitations, we provide a brief outline of the topics covered by the chapters in this volume.