Colombia report will further erode police authority

Headline COLOMBIA: Report will further erode police authority

Young People Who Use Drugs Views Toward the Power and Authority of Police Officers

Many young people who use drugs are structurally vulnerable to policing powers given the ongoing criminalization of drug possession. Police authority limits and the expression of that authority may play a significant role in police encounters among young people who use drugs. This qualitative study explores the views of young people who use drugs toward police power and authority in their recent encounters with police officers. Interviews were conducted with 38 young people who recently used illegal drugs in British Columbia, Canada. We found five interrelated themes related to perceptions of police authority: (1) skepticism and distrust toward authority; (2) paternalism and authority over drug use; (3) officer use of force; (4) police as power-hungry; and (5) officers above the law. Participants described police authority as limitless, unpredictable, untethered, easily abused, and lacking accountability. Participants feared holding police officers accountable to power abuses in a criminal justice system that they saw as stacked against them. Moving forward, institutional reforms may consider and account for the expression, limits, and use of police authority among young people who use drugs and other structurally vulnerable communities.

“It doesn’t work at all, that’s my experience”: Swedish forensic interviewers’ views on interpreter-mediated child interviews

Background: Legal practitioners have expressed concerns regarding the quality of interpreter-mediated forensic interviews with child witnesses.Objective: This mixed-methods study aimed to examine Swedish forensic interviewers’ experiences of conducting child interviews via a language interpreter. Participants and setting: Forty-one forensic interviewers from the Swedish Police Authority with experience conducting interpreter-mediated child interviews participated in a digital survey. Methods: Their responses were analyzed using both qualitative (thematic and content analyses) and quantitative (descriptive and inferential statistics) approaches. Results: The forensic interviewers’ general experiences of conducting interpreter-mediated child interviews were negative. Limited access to authorized legal interpreters and doubts regarding the accuracy of interpretation were described as major obstacles in these investigations. The presence of an interpreter could negatively impact children’s disclosure process and limit their chances of expressing their views during legal proceedings.Conclusions: According to Swedish forensic interviewers, the quality of interpreter-mediated child interviews urgently needs to be addressed. Our results are consistent with previous surveys from Australia and the United States, highlighting the international relevance of these topics. Future improvements are vital to ensure that all children are provided an equal right to be heard during criminal investigations, regardless of the native language.

Judicial Control over the Observance of Human Rights and Freedoms during the Detention of a Person

The purpose of this study was to identify problems in performing the functions of the investigating judge related to the protection of human rights and freedoms during detention and to offer solutions to them. The study is based on the use of methods of sampling and prognosis; system approach; descriptive statistics; comparison and collation; descriptive analysis method. We found out that the restriction of certain rights and freedoms of a person, detained on suspicion of having committed a crime, is quite legitimate, but some rights are violated due to abuse of police authority. The right to liberty and the right to security of person, the right to effective remedy and fair trial, and the right to respect for private and family life are most often violated during detention. Judicial control should be carried out in compliance with the following principles: immediacy, automaticity, conducting trial proceedings within a reasonable time. In order to universalize judicial control over the protection of human rights and freedoms during detention, we propose to develop an international legal document, regulating the conduct of judicial control.

Confidence in the police in Scotland: Trends in Scottish Crime and Justice Survey responses, 2012/13‐2017/18

This report presents a high-level analysis of trends in overall confidence in the police in Scotland between 2012/13 and 2017/18 using data from four sweeps of the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) conducted in 2012/13, 2014/15, 2016/17 and 2017/18. The paper was prepared for the Scottish Police Authority Policing Performance Committee meeting on 2020/05/28 (https://www.spa.police.uk/meetings/policing-performance-committee/28-may-2020/)

Local Resilience Forums in England

The concept of resilience, loosely defined as the ability to withstand or to bounce back from adversity and disruption, is attracting increasing attention within the social sciences. Within the policy arena, local and community based resilience strategies are playing an important part in responses to the challenge of unpredictable and disruptive events. This short exploratory paper looks to add to the literature on community resilience by exploring the work of the Local Resilience Forums in England. The Local Resilience Forums are multi-agency partnerships made up of a range of agencies including the police authority, local authorities, the fire and rescue services, the National Health Service and the Environment Agency, that serve communities defined by the boundaries of police areas. The paper outlines definitions of resilience and of community resilience, provides an exploratory review of the characteristics and workings of the Local Resilience Forums and offers some concluding reflections on the employment of the concept at the community level and by the LRF’s. Keywords: Resilience, Local Resilience Forum, Police Authority, Measurement, Governance, England.

Styles of policing and police–public interactions: The question of stop-and-search by police units in France

Styles of policing are reflected in the methods, decisions and priorities of law enforcement agencies. Based on an ethnographic study of police work in two major French metropolitan areas, this article identifies the styles of policing enforced in France, based on the use of discretionary stop-and-search. Despite nuances due to the variety of units, places and watch commanders, policing is delivered in a mostly proactive and confrontational way, which is reflected in a proliferation of units having an aggressive mandate. Stop-and-search is used to detect criminal activity, ‘take over’ territories and assert police authority, especially when the latter is challenged.

An Interview With Chief Årestad-Radner of the Swedish Police Authority

In this interview, Chief Årestad-Radner, National Coordinator of Recruitment for the Swedish Police Authority, provides her unique insights into law enforcement in Sweden. She discusses her experiences within the police agency and the changes in which she has been involved throughout her career. She describes the current training procedures, the strengths of these, and areas of growth. She reflects on the unique challenges of policing in Sweden, identifying possible solutions to overcome these challenges. Chief Årestad-Radner discusses the need for a police force that is representative of the community as well as the need for a standardized system for recruiting for higher-level positions. In addition, she describes the need for mental health integration within the police department and discusses the benefit of doing so. Lastly, she identifies the need for further research within law enforcement.

The performance of police duties in the context of the principles governing the operation of the state administrative authorities

Police duties represent a part of the internal affairs performed by the Police, by applying the police authority, measures and actions. The new concept of combating crime is based on the preventive activities of the police and judiciary. In this sense, the police affairs can be approached from different aspects. The primary role of the police is in the criminal and misdemeanor procedure, but, as it can be concluded in the text of this paper, the administrative activities of the police in preventing, detecting, and solving criminal acts, misdemeanors, and other crimes are also very important. So, the paper deals with the issues that significantly helped the main topic of this research paper to be analyzed in the best possible way. This paper analyzes the issues related to the affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the organization and competence of the police, the principles of operation of the state administrative bodies, police affairs and criminal and misdemeanor procedure as well as administrative activities of the police in preventing, detecting and solving crimes and other offenses. The primary legal texts being consulted were the Law on Police and the Law on State Administration, in addition to consulting two important rulebooks in this area - the Rulebook on police powers and the Rulebook on the manner of performing individual police duties.