As the United States struggled with police reforms to reduce violence, many European countries implemented measures to reduce its role.

The death of Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, was shot in the back by police in Atlanta on June 12, as "fueling the fire" with a wave of protests demanding to cut police budgets in the United States.

Some anti-racist activists say the radical solution to police violence is to completely eradicate the force, but that solution is considered to be too extreme and faces many objections.

But for many others, calls for budget cuts simply downplay the role of the police and invest more in social services designed to address issues like mental health and reintegration.

Most of these proposals have been applied in many other countries in Europe such as Sweden, Scotland or Finland.

"This is an opportunity for US police to find a more harmonious way of serving the community," said Megan O'Neill, an expert on community security at Dundee University, Scotland.

O'Neill said that in most of Europe, policing is not considered from the lens of law enforcement, but rather as part of a larger solution to social problems.

"Their approach is not to send the police wherever there is a problem, but to find a solution together. The police are considered a small part of a large solution set.

O'Neill said that what many debates in the US do not mention is that "we cannot transfer police budgets for other purposes, because the entire security system is very expensive and needs to be addressed."

"The important message for Americans is to invest in public service," said Elizabeth Aston, director of the Scottish Institute of Peace Research.

The budget cuts of mental health services in the United States has led police to increasingly deal with people suffering from the disease.

Some communities have established "crisis intervention teams", including police officers who have been trained in how to respond to mental patients.

Sweden chooses to replace police with a mental health professional.

"If a person has a mental problem, they should be looked after by a team of highly trained medical staff," said Andreas Carlborg, director of North Stockholm Mental Hospital.

Stockholm's mental health ambulance, consisting of two nurses and a driver, helps free up police resources, giving officers time to focus on their more experienced field, according to Carlborg.

An analysis published in Europe PMC in January concluded that Stockholm's project has made many mental patients feel they have a "safe environment" to be openly discussed.

In 2015, the city of Glasgow in Scotland was dubbed the "murder capital of Europe".

Health workers travel to schools across Scotland to share how they treated the victims of the murders.

Glasgow's murder crime rate has dropped significantly, about 35% over the past decade, according to Scottish government data provided in 2019. This model has been observed by police in many other countries such as Canada and New Zealand.

As a country with the highest detention rate in the world, the US often faces international criticism of the justice system, also a high rate of recidivism.

Switzerland reorganized its judicial system in 2017, after officials found that short prison sentences did not seem to reduce recidivism rates, but even counterproductive.

"Goodbye to prison," 2007 paper on Neue Zürcher Zeitung discussed the changes.

Finland is a prime example of Europe addressing homelessness.

Since the launch of the "priority settlement" program in 2008, the number of homeless people in Finland has decreased by more than 42%.

The approach towards homeless people was not initiated by the police, but has helped many people who have just been released from prison or want to re-establish their lives without falling out of their homes.

Juha Kaaakinen, author of this initiative and the head of Y-Foundation, Finland's largest non-profit housing organization, sees housing as a human right.

For Finland, the objective of the criminal policy is summed up in the slogan: "A good social development policy is the best criminal policy".

In addition to the above policies, police force surveillance also plays an important role.

Lawrence Sherman, a criminologist at Cambridge University, said HMIC reserves the right to withhold about half of the budget for police units.

"The answer to the question of how to control a weak police station is not having a good sheriff. The answer should be that there should be a watchdog to see if the legal process is carried out fairly,