activities. The information has to be provided before the first interrogation, in conditions ensuring that
the detainee fully understands it and can ask additional questions. Every detainee should be informed
that the police station has a list of attorneys and legal advisers from among whom they may
independently select one lawyer to seek assistance from. In this regard, the CHR also pointed out that
the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure as well as the practice are inconsistent with European
Union law, in so far as they do not guarantee immediate contact with a lawyer financed from the state
budget. Moreover, in the opinion of the Commissioner there is a need to develop a template of
information with contact details of all authorities that consider complaints (including institutions for the
protection of human rights and relevant units within the structures of the police, both at the central and
regional levels), to provide information to detained persons on attorneys and legal advisers, and in the
case of foreign detainees who does not speak Polish fluently, to ensure the presence of an interpreter as
a mandatory condition. The presence of an interpreter during all official procedures should be confirmed
by his/her signature and stamp in the relevant report. It also seems advisable to designate a room at the
place of detention, which is not monitored and where meetings can be held of detained persons and their
lawyers, out of sight and hearing of third parties. Police stations should be equipped with sound and
image registration equipment to record interrogations. Officers should be trained in the use of such
equipment and the equipment already available at some police stations should always be used. It would
be helpful to keep a register of persons entering and leaving the station, including the date and time of
entry and exit, the name of the officer under whose supervision the detainee is placed and the reasons
for entry. It is also necessary to end the practice of routine body search of all detainees. Body search
should be used only in exceptional cases justified by the situation, after the individual risk assessment,
while in other cases preventive search should be conducted. It is also necessary to introduce a standard
practice of medical examinations of all detained persons (including after the use of a taser, regardless of
the consequences of its use) and to adopt the principle of conducting the medical examination out of
sight and hearing of officers, unless the doctor decides that the presence of a policeman during the
examination is necessary. The Commissioner recommends that officers use handcuffs only when
justified by the risk assessment in a given case, and that an amendment is made of the order no. 130 of
7 August 2012 of the Police Commander in Chief on the performance of professional duties in rooms
for detained persons or persons brought for sobering up, so as to guarantee the presence of more than
one officer in such a room. Finally, the Commissioner recommends a review of staff shortages in all
organizational units of the police, taking into account the increasing number of inhabitants of
municipalities adjacent to urban agglomerations, and the introduction of officers’ regular training in
stress management methods, counteracting professional burnout and alcoholism, and the standards of
protecting detainees against ill-treatment, as described herein.
The Commissioner requested the Police Commander in Chief to present information on the
above-mentioned problems which increase the risk of ill-treatment and torture of detained persons in
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