Preface
T
he two experts who authored this guide have wide-ranging personal
and professional policing experience, including conducting audits and
inspections at home (the UK and France) and abroad (Iraq). They were
also highly motivated to press for human rights compliant practices in all
aspects of policing, which they knew to be not only operationally effective in
the immediate term but also in its contribution to instilling community support and confidence in the delivery of justice and the rule of law.
Through their own work, and in discussions with international colleagues, the
authors appreciated that many failures to deliver professional policing standards
resulted from poor knowledge, limited skills and inadequate police training,
rather than any personal shortcomings of individual officers. Too often they
had witnessed training attempts to promote human rights compliant policing
that relied heavily on academic and judicial approaches. These approaches
tended to be too far removed from the everyday work and life experience of
police officers and, while intellectually and legally sound, did little to deliver
human rights compliant practices to those most affected by policing.
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