This Introduction contextualises and overviews articles published in this special issue of Policing and Society. These articles were originally presented at a symposium entitled: "Policing and Accountability in Europe: Designing European Police Networks", held at the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht in September 2001. In democracies, the operational performance of the police is always accompanied by the quest to account for them. In this Introduction I argue that, given the nature of the Third Pillar arrangements for the governance of police co-operation in Europe, the most natural way to achieve police accountability in the European context is through national parliaments. This is not a position with which all scholars in this field agree. Therefore, this special issue of Policing and Society contains some lively debate. Contributions include articles by Erwin Muller on police accountability in the Netherlands, Willy Bruggerman on the accountability of Europol, Monica den Boer, I...