Published on August 30, 2017
Findings from visits to police cells
Ombudsman published a report summarizing her findings from unannounced visits to 47 cells for provisional detention at 14 district police stations. Ombudsman came to conclusion that provisionally detained people are sometimes humiliated and their rights, privacy and dignity might be violated.
“It is degrading if all provisionally detained persons had to strip naked and in some cases got toilet paper or a toothbrush only when they asked for it,” said Ombudsman Anna Šabatova at the press conference concerning her report of police cells.
The Ombudsman criticises that the police have no internal rules defining under what conditions body searches should be performed and how they should be performed on the detained people. She has already recommended to the Police President to launch such internal rules.
Another critical remarks concerned the fact that detained persons are not properly informed about their rights. According to the Ombudsman, detained persons must get standard written information about their rights and can keep it during their detention. However, she realized that at some of the police stations detainees received this information only if they asked for it. In other cases police do not let detainees keep the information and as a reason they stated that the paper is an item that can potentially pose a danger to life or health.
Ombudsman also find out that some of the cells are not equipped sufficiently. For example, the bed did not have a mattress, which cannot be tolerated in a cell in which people spend more than six hours.
Report from visits to police cell is available here