Without violations during detention: the Irpen police station has launched a new system for observing citizens' rights

During the occupation of Kyiv region, the police station was destroyed by enemy shells, and already today, citizens' requests are accepted there and a temporary detention center is functioning.

This system helps to ensure the effective work of the police without violations of human rights. The project was implemented on the initiative of the All-Ukrainian Charitable Organization “Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation”.

Custody Records provides full monitoring of all actions that are carried out from the moment of detention to the application of a preventive measure by the court, the referral of a person to pre-trial detention center or until release from custody.

Any delay by the police is not pleasant, and often even conflictual. Therefore, for the detention process to be fair, it must be fixed. The policeman must turn on the body camera, and the citizen can also do it by turning on the phone camera. There is a great demand and desire for justice in society, therefore Custody Records is this justice, – stressed the head of the Department of the Main Inspection and Human Rights Compliance of the National Police of Ukraine, Ruslan Horyachenko.

Police officers demonstrated the entire process and important nuances of detention according to the Custody Records system:

< li>From the beginning of the detention process, continuous video recording is carried out on the body camera of the policeman.
• Already after arriving at the station, the detainee is identified, which is also recorded by cameras in the premises.
• Further, the detainee is given the opportunity to meet with a lawyer, which is completely confidential and recorded on cameras without sound recording.

• If necessary, an ambulance can be called for the detainee. Investigative actions will continue only after the examination and provision of pre-medical assistance.
• Further, the detainee is taken to the room for establishing investigative actions. The room is equipped with cameras without audio recording, there is a protective glass between the police officer and the detainee. The room also has a separate glass with access to another room for a safe and confidential identification process.

• The detainee is transferred to the pre-trial detention center for temporary detention pending court proceedings. All cells are equipped with comfortable beds, separate toilets, a table and chairs. There is a shower room with the necessary things in a separate room.

There is also a separate cell for people with disabilities in the isolation ward, equipped with everything necessary for a comfortable stay in the department.

Every room of the detention center is monitored around the clock^ both day and night.

All records and data on cases are kept for 17 years, because some cases are taken up for processing and re-examination depending on the situation.

We started this project back in 2016, when our goal was to investigate the nature of detention, to create infrastructure in the police environment so that detention is legal, to enable law enforcement officers to work effectively without violating human rights. Later, the idea arose to create a system modeled after the leading European countries, which would allow people to be detained legally and fairly, said Mykola Sioma, director of the All-Ukrainian Charitable Organization “Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation”.

Now the Custody Records system is normatively regulated and included in the criminal procedural of the Code of Ukraine.

Also, after regulatory settlement, such a position as “Inspector for the observance of human rights” was introduced.

This employee is not subordinate to the district police department in which he is located, thereby ensuring the independence of the inspector from other policemen.