Policing and Human Rights analyses the implementation of human rights standards, tracing them from the nodal points of their production in Geneva, through the board rooms of national police management and training facilities, to the streets of downtown Johannesburg. This book deals with how the unprecedented influence of human rights, combined with the inability by police officers to ‘live up’ to international standards, has created a range of policing and human rights vernaculars – hybrid discourses that have appropriated, transmogrified and undercut human rights. Understood as an attempt by police officers, as much as by the police as a whole, to recover a position from which to act and to judge, these vernaculars reveal the compromised ways in which human rights are – and are not – implemented. Tracing how, in South Africa, human rights have given rise to new forms of popular justice, informal ‘private’ policing and provisional security arrangements, Policing and Human Rights delivers an important analysis of how the dissemination and implementation of human rights intersects with the post-colonial and post-transformation circumstances that characterise many countries in the South.

This book provides an updated overview of current international human rights law relating to the police. Around the globe, the police have a special responsibility for the protection of human rights. Police work is governed by national rules and in addition, in today’s world, by the evolving international human rights standards. As a result of the ever-developing case law of international courts and other bodies, the requirements of human rights law on policing have become more and more detailed and complex in recent years. Bringing together a variety of distinguished authors from academia, police forces and other government authorities, the human rights movement, and international organizations, the book discusses topical issues, including the use of deadly force, the prevention of torture, effective investigations, the protection of personal data, and positive obligations of the police.

This is a unique book in that it distils the knowledge, ideas and experience of three police professionals in the cause of a human rights-based approach to policing. The book is written for an audience of police officials, human rights workers with an interest in human rights and policing, and resource persons and teachers responsible for the education of police officials. It provides a concise account and analysis of international human rights standards and best practice appertaining to key areas of policing, and it sets out a clear strategy to bring about change, organisational and thence behavioural, within police organisations. To focus on human rights and best practice in policing is not only important as an end in itself, it is also important as a means of securing effective policing for the support of the community. Effective policing in a democracy is dependent upon police respecting the rule of law and human rights.

This is a second, thoroughly revised and expanded edition of a book that has four clear objectives: to provide a concise account and analysis of international human rights and humanitarian law standards relevant to policing; to set out arguments for compliance with those standards; to show how they may be met in two key areas of policing, interviewing suspects of crime, and policing in times of armed conflict, disturbance and tension; and to make practical recommendations on the management of police agencies. Good practice on interviewing suspects and on policing conflict is included because they are areas of policing where human rights are most at risk. Good management practice is included because intelligent management by enlightened leaders is necessary to secure effective, lawful and humane policing.

This book examines protest policing and the toolbox of options available to police commanders in response. The right to peacefully protest is intrinsic to democracy and embedded in British history and tradition. The police are responsible for managing public order and facilitating peaceful protest and this has not been without criticism. On occasions, the police have found themselves in opposition to protest groups and there have been incidents of disorder as a result. In response, the development of Police Liaison Teams in the UK has presented the police with a gateway for dialogue between themselves and those involved in protest. Drawing on two contrasting case studies, the policing of the badger cull in South West England and an English Defence League (EDL) march in Liverpool, this book explores the experiences of police commanders, police liaison officers, protesters, counterdemonstrators, members of local businesses and other interested parties. It explores how a dialogical approach with all those engaged in or affected by a protest has assisted the police in balancing human rights and reducing conflict for all. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students, scholars and practitioners of policing, politics, criminology, sociology, human rights and all those interested in how protests are policed.