24. In addition to making police custody, and police work in general, more efficient, and to providing better material conditions to persons in police custody, the separation of police tasks can also support the police in implementing their obligation of care vis-à-vis detained persons and serve as a measure of prevention of ill-treatment. Indeed, police officers who have to fulfil dual or even triple roles of (a) operative officers responsible for the arrest of persons, (b) caretakers and custody officers who should look after the wellbeing of those they have arrested (possibly under difficult circumstances), and (c) criminal investigators who have to question these persons in relation to a crime, will often find it personally challenging to assume all of these roles in a professional manner. 25. While it remains incumbent on the arresting officer(s) to inform persons of their rights and provide them with the possibility to implement these rights even if they are held only for a few hours in a smaller police station - dedicated custodial officers can doublecheck upon admission to the custody facility whether the detained person has understood all the rights and was able to exercise them. Moreover, dedicated custodial officers could be the first instance for any complaints a person might have against arresting officers. Which arguments speak against phasing out in law and practice police custody in local police stations, and the introduction of dedicated police custody facilities and/or dedicated custody officers? Information on rights 26. It is common sense that persons who do not know their rights will not be in a position to exercise them. A precondition for all the other safeguards is thus that persons deprived of their liberty by the police are effectively informed of their rights, in a language they understand and in consideration of any specific condition that might prevent the person from fully understanding their rights (e.g. juveniles, illiterate persons, persons with mental disorders).22 27. All persons detained by the police - for whatever reason – should be fully informed of their rights as from the very outset of deprivation of liberty (that is, from the moment when they are de facto obliged to remain with the police, not only when officially declared a suspect). This should be ensured by provision of clear verbal information at apprehension, to be supplemented at the earliest opportunity (that is, immediately upon arrival at police premises) by provision of a written information sheet. Detainees should be allowed to keep a copy of this information sheet. 28. Good practices have been observed in a number of countries, such as in Slovenia, where the CPT was pleased to note that persons detained by the police were in the large majority of cases verbally informed of their rights upon apprehension and shortly afterwards given an information sheet. Such sheets were available in 24 languages in all police establishments visited and additional language versions could be produced when necessary. In addition, a specific information sheet for detained juveniles was available in several languages. In other countries, such information sheets were supplemented by posters containing all the rights in places accessible to detainees, e.g. in waiting areas and on the inside of custody cell doors. Cf., Directive 2012/13/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 on the right to information in criminal proceedings, in particular Art. 3; EU Directive on Access to a Lawyer, para. 39. 22 9