International Standards for Police Complaints System

• In Event: Comparative Perspectives on Complaints against the Police

Abstract

There are a number of, sometimes detailed, international standards on police complaints systems, both ‘hard’ law instruments, such as the ICCPR and the ECHR, and ‘soft’ law, such as the OSCE’s Guidebook on Democratic Policing and the UN’s Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. These provide useful guidance, particularly given the vast variation in the structures, powers and practices of independent police complaints bodies (IPCBs). They may also be usefully leveraged by jurisdictions arguing for the creation – or expansion of such bodies. This paper will compare these standards against the practices of the IPCBs in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and across the UK that were examined as part of the project Police Accountability – Towards International Standards, highlighting deficits in current institutional structures, legal bases and powers and reflecting upon the gaps in the standards themselves that fail to address the shortcomings in IPCB practice and regulation.

Authors

• Genevieve Lennon, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

• Hartmut Aden, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Berlin Intitute for Safety and Security Research (FÖPS Berlin)