Report of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights on the Activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention ...
prosecutor’s offices to simultaneously conduct criminal and disciplinary
proceedings and investigations, and to make available to the police materials
gathered by prosecutors’ offices on conducted criminal proceedings.
In reply, the CHR was assured by the Secretary of State of the Ministry of
the Interior and Administration that works on ensuring effective conduct of
disciplinary proceedings against police officers in the cases of human rights
violations were advanced. Among others, a draft version of a database on
disciplinary proceedings relating to cases of human rights violations had
been developed as a source of support to police disciplinary officers (the database materials have already been forwarded to the police). Activities were
also undertaken to organize specialist training for police disciplinary officers
in the methods of classification of disciplinary offenses related to human
rights violations112. The implementation of the Strategy will still be monitored by the CHR.
Regretfully, the Ministry’s assurances of speedy and effective disciplinary
proceedings against police officers found no confirmation in the currently
famous case of Igor Stachowiak. The proceedings on the case, conducted by
the police and the prosecutor’s office in order to clarify the circumstances
of the man’s death in a police station in Wrocław, were accelerated only one
year after his death, when the case was highlighted on television113.
2. Shifting responsibility for care of persons intoxicated with
alcohol to the police
Apart from the requirement to submit a person to a medical examination prior to admission to a PDR, there is no obligation to provide full-time
medical care for persons detained in such rooms. There is a shortage of physicians to monitor the condition of persons placed in PDRs for the purpose
of sobering up, as well as persons intoxicated with alcohol but placed in
PDRs due to a suspicion of committed offence. The responsibility for the
safety of such detainees has been shifted to police officers who are only able
to provide first aid and, if needed, to call an ambulance hoping that it will
arrive soon and that such intervention will be effective.
According to the statistics, of the total of 112 persons who died in PDRs
in the period 2010-2016, 90 were detainees intoxicated with alcohol, includ Reply of the Secretary of State of the MIA of 14.06.2016, ref. no. BMP-0790-4-6/2016/MJ.
Deputy CHR’s general intervention of 24.05.2017 to Commander-in-Chief of the Police, ref. no.
BPW.519.21.2016; CHR’s general intervention of 28.06.2017, ref. no. II.519.563.2017; CHR’s general intervention of 26.06.2017 to Commander-in-Chief of the Police, ref. no. BPW.519.21.2016.
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