Police detention centres If there is a death, the place where the body was found should be immediately closed off and left unaltered. The police and the public prosecutors’ office should be informed right away, and the police should secure the place where the body was found until the coroner’s commission arrives. On-site reflection After a suicide attempt or suicide, an internal reflection with experts (from outside the police station) must be quickly initiated. Police officers and medical staff who were affected by the suicide should be invited to the reflection. Case analys In the future, the police department’s Office of Quality and Knowledge Management must make a case analysis after every suicide or (thwarted) suicide attempt. This analysis should examine the medical, psychological and organisational aspects of the case in a standardised manner. The employees of the affected police station should be involved as should outside experts, if necessary. The goal of the analysis is to obtain a learning experience to optimise future prevention work. The final item in the standards for suicide prevention formulated by the working group was a guideline for documenting indicators of suicide risk. Accordingly, information that raises the suspicion that a person presents a danger to himself/herself must be suitably documented. It is irrelevant whether this information comes from internal or external sources. In the future, every police officer should be required to document this information and pass it on. The police officer will also be required to ensure that the necessary (emergency) measures are initiated. This includes a medical assessment of the suspected suicide risk, suitable surveillance and the prevention of access to dangerous objects. The working group agreed to attach a multi-page “list of indicators”, which was prepared by an NPM psychiatric expert, to the text of the adopted standards as an appendix. The list contains illness-related, personal and situational factors for suicidal tendencies in detainees. The knowledge of these factors should aid in identifying the danger of suicide. The NPM will recommend that the Federal Ministry of the Interior implements the suicide prevention standards it has developed as quickly as possible. Flow of information among Ministries The working group also addressed possible measures to ensure the flow of information between the Federal Ministry of Justice (now the Federal Ministry of Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The working group agreed that information should be exchanged through a standardised, electronic process in the future. The working group will formulate an appropriate recommendation to avoid gaps in the information on suicide-prone detainees. In addition, the working group will address the following matters: medical evaluation of threatened suicides, NPM suggestions to change the form 150