4. Detention in the police station

This chapter examines the effectiveness of the checks, controls, and safeguards provided for suspects in police detention, including for suspects considered to be vulnerable by the police. It also evaluates the effect of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998. The discussions cover the powers and duties of custody officers and detention officers; length of detention without charge; suspects’ rights including the right to legal advice and the rights of vulnerable suspects; the purpose of and experiences of police detention; and deaths in police custody.

“Se busca”. Métodos de investigación para una aproximación feminista a mujeres detenidas por la policía

Este artículo explora cómo es posible poner en práctica métodos de investigación para analizar la experiencia de las mujeres detenidas en calabozos desde una perspectiva feminista. Presentamos el proceso metodológico desarrollado con las mujeres que pasaron por una experiencia de detención policial, prestando especial atención a las cuestiones éticas. Para ello, se realiza un análisis de la literatura sobre este objeto de investigación, se describe el contexto de la investigación, la metodología desarrollada y las decisiones tomadas sobre las técnicas de investigación más apropiadas al contexto concreto y las especificidades de las mujeres detenidas por la policía. Se ilustra la utilidad de la reunión de cierre con un doble propósito: sopesar el impacto de la investigación para las participantes y devolver los resultados. Pero el grupo de cierre posibilitó cumplir con otros objetivos no contemplados inicialmente, tales como el contraste grupal de resultados, la rendición de cuentas acerca de la marcha de la investigación y la generación de dinámicas de empatía y validación mutua En definitiva, el grupo de cierre fue mucho más allá de las expectativas iniciales, sirviendo de aprendizaje para las investigadoras acerca del enorme potencial de las técnicas grupales para el estudio de experiencias de mujeres.Más allá de lo inicialmente previsto, el grupo de cierre permitió establecer otras formas de relación con las mujeres participantes reduciendo la distancia investigadoras/participantes y facilitando formas más horizontales de generar conocimiento.This article explores how research methods can be used to analyse the experience of women in police custody from a feminist approach. Here, there are presented the methodological process developed with women who went through an experience of police detention, paying particular attention to ethical issues, through a review of the literature on this object of research, a description of the research context, the methodology developed and the decisions made about the most appropriate research techniques for the specific context and the specificities of women in police detention. The usefulness of the closing meeting is illustrated with a double purpose: to weigh the impact of the research for the participants and to return the results, But the closing group made it possible to fulfil other objectives not initially envisaged, such as group comparison of results, accountability on the progress of the research, as well as the generation of dynamics of empathy and mutual validation. In short, the closing group went far beyond the initial expectations, serving as a learning experience for the researchers about the enormous potential of group techniques for the study of women's experiences. Beyond what was initially envisaged, the focus group allowed for the establishment of other forms of relationships with the women participants, reducing the researcher/participant distance and facilitating more horizontal ways of generating knowledge.

Rettspolitisk mobilisering og strategisk sakførsel mot isolasjon i norske fengsler

Solitary confinement in prison and police detention has been a widespread criminal policy and human rights problem in the Scandinavian countries for decades. However, in recent years, there has been a significant legal mobilization in Norway whereby lawyers individually and collectively have challenged solitary confinement in the courts. This use of strategic litigation has been directed towards solitary confinement in police custody, remand and during imprisonment. Based on qualitative interviews and documents, we analyze the organizational and legal strategy behind this legal mobilization, along with its effects and preconditions. We find that strategic litigation by lawyers has played an important role in the struggle against solitary confinement in Norway, but that it has benefited from – and played in tandem with – a legal and political opportunity structure consisting of national as well as international actors, processes, and legal frameworks. These findings raise the question of whether lawyers and civil society can contribute in similar ways in the other Scandinavian countries.

Role of EU and National Legislation in Shaping Communication in Police Detention Centres

The study is devoted to a discussion on selected issues relating to the EU and national legislation which determine the process of the mainstream communication with third-country nationals in the Police Detention Centres. The study is a part of the ongoing research project of the Department of Foreign Languages of the Academy of the Police Force in Bratislava and the Bureau of the Border and Foreign Police of the Presidium of the Police Force, Slovakia titled Intercultural Communication with third-country nationals in the Police Detention Centres. The research attempts to find the answer to the following question: What means of intercultural communication (verbal and non-verbal) do police officers use with third-country nationals for mutual understanding, avoiding conflicts and correct adherence to human rights? Following the findings of the intermediate legislative and applied research, the author points out the main reasons which lead to certain difficulties in performing understandable communication in the Police Detention Centres such as loopholes in the EU legislation, non-conformity of the EU and national legislation in using the state (national) vs foreign language in official service communication with third-country nationals whose stay is unauthorised in the territory of the Slovak Republic, and in the EU and the Schengen Area, and their residence or entry into the Schengen Area is detected as irregular and subsequently clarified, with respective accountability.

“Treat them as a human being”: dignity in police detention and its implications for ‘good’ police custody

Here, we examine the factors influencing whether those detained by the police feel treated with dignity. We develop a human rights-oriented conception of dignity rooted in the equal worth of human beings, encapsulated in detainees’ desire to be ‘treated like a human being’. The predictors of this are examined using multilevel modelling of survey data collected from 371 detainees in 27 custody facilities in 13 police forces in England and Wales in an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study of ‘good’ police custody. We found that perceptions of the material conditions predicted feelings of dignity, as did detainees’ reactions to being detained, their perceptions of the culture of police custody and the mechanisms used to hold the police to account. Feelings of dignity were also less likely for younger adults and for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic detainees, with these experiences being mediated by less trust in accountability mechanisms. This paper concludes by examining the implications for ‘good’ police custody.

Evaluating National Preventive Mechanisms: A Conceptual Model

This article outlines a rigorous and systematic approach to evaluating both the performance and impact of national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) formed under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. Many human rights practitioners remain sceptical about both the desirability and feasibility of evaluating human rights work. One obstacle has been that ‘indicators’ of human rights progress are formulated without evidence that they actually have a causal relationship to the intended outcome. By contrast, the tools used in this assessment model are derived from scientific research into what forms of torture prevention actually work, meaning that greater weight can be assigned to more effective activities (and vice versa). The model is piloted in an assessment of the performance and impact of the Georgian NPM, which in ten years of work is shown to have had a significant impact in reducing the incidence of torture and other ill-treatment, particularly in police detention and prisons.

Interrogating Vulnerability: Reframing the Vulnerable Suspect in Police Custody

This article considers the definition of the term ‘vulnerability’ in relation to the suspect in police detention and more specifically in relation to the appropriate adult safeguard. Using Fineman’s vulnerability theory, this article argues that all suspects are ‘vulnerable’ and, rather, attention should be focussed on how resilience is depleted, reduced or removed. In doing so, it points towards the limitations of the focus of the current legislative provisions. It situates this discussion within the broader frame of the impact and very nature of police detention and the implications of the broader criminal process as mechanisms that reduce resilience (and possibly deliberately so). Further, it reflects on how the framing of vulnerability in legislation relating to the police detention does not fully capture the position of the suspect in police detention. It concludes then by urging that the definition of the vulnerable suspect is reconceptualised so as to more adequately capture the position of the suspect of the criminal investigation.

Climbing the Protest Pyramid: A Situational Analysis of the Resistance of Rickshaw Drivers in Guangzhou, China

Guangzhou police confiscated more than 1,000 “illegal” rickshaws every day since they were banned from use in the city. However, rickshaws were omnipresent in all corners of the city, representing a massive army of unemployed or underemployed workers struggling to eke out a living. Various strategies were used by these rickshaw operators to protest and resist the mass confiscation by the police. Using data collected through systematic social observation of police law enforcement and rickshaw drivers’ routine activities, focus group interviews with the police, in-depth semistructured interviews with rickshaw drivers, official police detention statistics of rickshaw drivers, and media content data mining, this article provides a typology and an analysis of resistance. Based on the severity and intensity of resistance, these typologies are ranked in what I shall call a “pyramid of resistance.” This article further examines how situational factors such as degree of frustration, procedural justice, mobilization capacity, and campaign-style policing affect the escalation of resistance.