2.5 POLICE PROCEEDINGS CASES CONSIDERED FIELD OF WORK 5. Police proceedings 2014 2015 100 81 RESOLVED AND FOUNDED INDEX 15/14 81.0 NO. OF RESOLVED 74 NO. OF FOUNDED 7 PERCENTAGE OF FOUNDED AMONG RESOLVED 9.5 2.5.1 General observations The share of (un)justified complaints is mainly a reflection of the method of considering complaints in this area or the complainants’ uncooperativeness. A procedure is initiated immediately after the receipt of a complaint only in specially justified cases. We usually encourage complainants to exploit the complaint procedure based on the Police Tasks and Powers Act (ZNPPol) if they do not agree with police proceedings. We believe that it is appropriate to first verify potential questionable procedures within the system in which an alleged irregularity occurred. We inform complainants that our intervention in such cases is usually appropriate only if they are dissatisfied with the anticipated complaint procedure, or due to unduly long procedures or even a lack of response from a competent authority. We further ascertain that few complainants contact us again after we have suggested they use a complaint procedure as per the ZNPPol, which means either they were satisfied with the result of the complaint procedure or are no longer interested in our further intervention. In such cases, we cannot continue the procedure, and the case is closed with clarifications only, without actually stating a position on the alleged violations, i.e. the justification or non-justification of complaints. 2.5.2 Realisation of the Ombudsman’s recommendations We are pleased to note that in most cases, the Ministry of the Interior and the police follow our recommendations. It is commendable that the Ministry of the Interior considered some of our proposals or recommendations in the preparation of guidelines and compulsory instructions on police work in 2015, which were included in the guidelines (e.g. establishing the current situation with regard to offences – recommendations no. 54 and 55; unauthorised leaking of information to the media, which can affect close family members of suspects – recommendation no. 58; and tact and tolerance in the consideration of 80 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 81 2.5 POLICE PROCEEDINGS In 2015, the Ombudsman discussed 81 complaints relating to police proceedings. The work of police officers was also considered in some other areas (e.g. the restriction of personal liberty in police detention) or subareas (e.g. in offence procedures). This is a slight reduction compared to 2014, when 100 complaints were considered. We hope that this is (also) due to improvement in the work of police officers or continued efforts by the police and the Ministry of the Interior (MNZ) to consistently consider human rights in police proceedings, with appropriate communication and a respectful attitude of police officers to individuals. We must note that an assessment of the situation in this area cannot be made only on the basis of the number of complaints sent to the Ombudsman and/or their justification.