PART II.  THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES In addition, good management is where superiors also keep an eye on the personal situation of law enforcement officials under their command. Without intruding, a commander should notice and observe when certain circumstances or operations seem to affect someone’s judgment. In these cases, the commander should take appropriate action and assign other duties for the time being. This is, for example, recognized in the regulations of the Indonesia National Police, where article 57 requires superiors to “be aware of the health conditions of their subordinates” and to “consider the capability of their subordinates with task been given to them”.138 POLICE SUICIDE AND FAMILY VIOLENCE There are many reports about law enforcement officials who use their arms against themselves or their family members. Indeed, levels of suicide amongst law enforcement officials tend to be high and one of the facilitators of this regrettable trend is that they have access to instruments of force, in particular firearms. Moreover, law enforcement officials have used their official instruments of force (in particular firearms) against their spouses, children and others in cases of domestic violence. Where instruments of force provided in an official capacity have been used in private incidents, including instances of domestic violence, this should have disciplinary, and whenever warranted, criminal consequences. In many countries, law enforcement officials are required to leave their firearms at work in designated storage spaces. Also it is important to have suicide prevention programmes and psychological support for law enforcement officers. In Algeria for instance, the national law enforcement agency has a number of staff psychologists available to support members of the agency. An important aspect of the performance management cycle is assessing and evaluating the conduct of the members of staff in their performance of duty, including arrests made, incidents of force,139 use of firearms, as well as any casualties resulting from their actions, in light of their geographic placement, and their command structure. PRAISE OR PUNISH? In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, instead of punishing officers for their wrongdoings, the state financially awarded 11,749 police officers and other public servants in April 2013 for meeting reduction targets for crimes and acts of violence, including police homicides.a This has helped to reduce police killings, since units that had a high number of deaths had less chance of obtaining the bonus. It should be noted, however, that such a policy carries great risk when it does not include a transparent reference to how police officers’ performance relates to decreased crime rates. Thus, police officers should only be rewarded when they bring down crime in compliance with the law. Indeed, the definition of accurate indicators is a major challenge in measuring efforts. a See Human Rights Watch, World Report, Brazil, 2014:https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/brazil See Regulation of the Chief of the Indonesian National Police (INP), No. 8, 2009: www.use-of-force.info. Osse, Anneke, Understanding Policing: A Resource for Human Rights Activists, Amnesty International, the Netherlands, 2006. 138  139  59