71 Even in cases where an individual is held in a multi-occupancy cell for just a short period of time, it must be ensured that they have enough space to sit down and walk around a little. According to the National Agency’s standards, police custody cells must always have a floor space of at least 3.5 square metres for every person. Facing walls must be separated by a distance of at least two metres, and the ceiling must be considerably higher than two metres. This represents an absolute minimum requirement. required. The measure must be documented 72 comprehensively. The person concerned should be informed after the measure of the possibility to have a court review the 73 permissibility of the restraint procedure. Furthermore, it is the view of the National Agency that physical restraints should only be applied using a strap-based system. The Federal police and the Land police stations of several Federal Länder no longer permit the application of physical restraint in police custody. At these stations, individuals who the police believe require physical restraint are transferred to psychiatric clinics. In its latest report on its visit to Germany, the CPT also calls upon the police authorities to put an end to the 74 practice of physical restraint. 3.2.9 – CCTV monitoring At police stations in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, prison cells were frequently subject to continuous CCTV monitoring. There was nothing in the cells to indicate that monitoring was taking place, and it was not clear whether the camera was running. 3.2.7 – Custody documentation Custody documentation at many Federal and Land police stations was inadequate. In one case, the custody records were not kept on site, but were rather kept exclusively at the superior agency. At several stations, there was incomplete documentation of the instruction on rights provided to persons taken into custody. In other cases, decisions to carry out a strip-search, as well as the justification for these decisions, were generally not documented. There were no regular checks of the custody record book by senior officers. CCTV monitoring should only be used in police stations in individual cases where it is imperative for the protection of the person concerned. The reasons for the use of CCTV monitoring should be documented. In addition, the person concerned must be informed that monitoring is taking place. The mere fact that the camera is visible is not sufficient. Furthermore, it should be possible for the person concerned to discern whether the camera is running. All detention-related information must be fully documented and available on site. Senior officers should check at regular intervals whether the documentation is complete. These checks should also be recorded. 3.2.10 – Multiple occupancy of custody cells with non-partitioned toilets At a police station in North RhineWestphalia, the toilet in one multi-occupancy cell was not fully partitioned and did not have separate ventilation. 3.2.8 – Size of custody cells In order to ensure humane detention conditions, it is imperative that custody cells accommodating more than one person have a fully partitioned toilet with separate ventilation. Furthermore, according to past decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court, the placement of several prisoners in a single cell without a partitioned toilet and separate ventilation 75 represents a violation of human dignity. The custody suite of one police station in North Rhine-Westphalia included a multioccupancy cell with a floor space of 18 square metres. The officers present did not know how many people were permitted to be held in this room. 71 Ibid., margin no. 69 Ibid., margin no. 84 Ibid., margin no. 85 74 CPT/Inf (2017) 13, margin no. 33 72 73 75 Federal Constitutional Court, order of 22/02/2011, file no.: 1 BvR 409/09, margin no. 30 63