Policy Options for Improvement of Assembly Policing Management in Moldova
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POLICY OPTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF ASSEMBLY POLICING MANAGEMENT IN MOLDOVA POLICY OPTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF ASSEMBLY POLICING MANAGEMENT IN MOLDOVA Resource Center for Human Rights Centrul de Resurse pentru Drepturile Omului (CReDO) Al. Hajdeu 95 "A", CHISINAU, MD 2005, Moldova (373 22) 212 816, fax (373 22) 225 257 [email protected], www.CReDO.md 1 POLICY OPTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF ASSEMBLY POLICING MANAGEMENT IN MOLDOVA Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 3 2. Police Bodies Involved in Assembly and Public Order Policing............................................. 5 2.1 Public Order Police Entities .............................................................................................. 7 2.2 Public Order Sections in Police Commissariats ................................................................. 9 2.3 Patrolling and Sentinel (Guard Duties) Police SCUT ........................................................ 9 2.4 Carabineri Troops............................................................................................................. 11 2.5 Specialized Brigade of Police FULGER .......................................................................... 12 2.6 Chapter Discussions and Conclusions.............................................................................. 13 3. Policing Assemblies Approaches and Tactics – Moldovan Practice...................................... 16 3.1 Assembly Policing Tactics ............................................................................................... 16 3.2 Training Practice for Policing of Assemblies................................................................... 19 3.3 Policy on Use of Special Means....................................................................................... 20 3.4 Chapter Discussions and Conclusions.............................................................................. 23 4. Approaches in Policing of Assemblies: Experience from Various Jurisdictions ................... 25 4.1 Models of Public Order Policing...................................................................................... 25 4.2 Identifying Best Practice .................................................................................................. 27 4.3 Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 29 5. Outputs of Policing of Assemblies in Moldova ..................................................................... 31 5.1 Assembly Dynamics......................................................................................................... 31 5.2 Police Management of Assemblies................................................................................... 33 5.3 Problems and Challenges ................................................................................................. 37 6. Analysis of Policy Options..................................................................................................... 40 6.1 Discussion of Policy Options ........................................................................................... 40 6.2 Conclusions and Recommendations................................................................................. 44 7. References .............................................................................................................................. 46 The policy research has been elaborated by Serghei Ostaf, director of Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO). Chapter on international experience and good practice has been incorporated from the research elaborated by Neil Jarman, director of the Northern Ireland Conflict Research Institute. 2 POLICY OPTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF ASSEMBLY POLICING MANAGEMENT IN MOLDOVA 1. Introduction Description of the problem Freedom of assembly is at the core of democratic foundation of the state. Freedom of assembly rights together with the freedom of expression rights are the most publicly visible rights exercised in the society. Media and the society frequently judges on the state of the democracy based on the respect for and the exercise of these rights. Governments’ image is considerably affected if it fails to enforce freedom of assembly rights. Monitoring reports, studies and expert opinion consider that Moldova, since it adopted the new law on assembly in April 2008, the state of the freedom of expression has improved in the country. The number of assemblies has increased almost threefold, citizens has slowly started to build more confidence and self-awareness demonstrating this in public. The exercise of the freedom of assembly rights could still be improved, as there are a number of cases when assembly rights are violated. Assembly rights violations result from the unjust police interference, abstention of police when aggressive third parties threaten or prevent the assembly organizers to exercise assembly rights. Apart from local administration frequent failure to perform adequately its duties, police remains by far at the core of the number of causes. The policy paper has been commissioned to help understanding the exact nature of the causes of the police to failure to facilitate, protect assemblies, protect and maintain public order during the assemblies. The requested conclusions and recommendations are prompted from several recent authoritative opinions issued by the internationally specialized bodies. They provide general guidance to look into more depth in the police assembly management practice. Objective The objective of the paper is to provide policy solutions to improve police practice of the policing management of assemblies. Methodology Methods for the collection of the information includes: 1) comprehensive analysis of the legal provisions on the police bodies and relevant regulatory framework on policing of assemblies, 2) interviews with the police bodies responsible persons, 3) review of the available researches on assemblies in Moldova and good practices in other jurisdictions, 4) deconstruction of the assembly policing practice based on the collected information and analysis of other information, 5) documentation of the good practices in policing of assemblies available in other jurisdictions. The analysis of the collected information has been performed based on the standard policy analysis method. Three policy options, including status quo situation are analysis and compared against each other based on the set criteria. The conclusions and recommendations are based on the findings. The research has been performed during period of July-November 2009. Road-map 3 POLICY OPTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF ASSEMBLY POLICING MANAGEMENT IN MOLDOVA The paper consists of several chapters. After the introduction, the second chapter deals with the comprehensive inventory of all police bodies involved in the police and management of assembly policing. Third chapter discusses tactical approaches, use of special means, and relevant professional education for the police officers. Fourth chapter brings the existing good practice and experience from other jurisdictions on the assembly policing. Fifth chapter reviews the existing quantitative and qualitative data and information on policing of assemblies in Moldova. The final chapter analyses the constructed policy options and provides conclusions and comprehensive recommendations. Conclusions and recommendations In the short run it is recommended to adopt the policy option for keeping organizational set up of police as it is, yet to act on changing and improving the tactical approach in assembly management. While in the mid-term and in the context of police reform to follow the policy option that will switch the responsibility of assembly policing to Scut police. In both policy options a substantial change in planning, risk assessment and police force deployment is necessary. To match the existing and forthcoming challenges of assembly policing, a prevention assembly management specialized unit should be created, composed of at least 50-75 specially equipment policemen that would be primarily involved in the assembly policing. Equipping the police with personal protection means and general protection equipment relevant to the assembly policing is strongly recommended in any of the policy options preferred. The role of Carabineri in policing of assembly should be downsized as Scut will be benefiting from some transfer of resources to take over this responsibility. Paper elaboration The paper has benefited from several reviews: Neil Jarman, director of the Northern Ireland Conflict Research Institute, Dace Lukumuete, senior human rights adviser of the OSCE Mission in Chisinau and Ludmila Samoila, legal adviser from OSCE Mission in Chisinau and Florin Gisca, program coordinator, Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO). Abbreviations: MAI – Ministry of Internal Affairs, GPC - General Police Commissariat, Police Commissariats - District or Rayon Police Commissariats, subordinated to General Police Commissariat for Chisinau City and to Ministry of Internal Affairs for Rayon Commissariats, SCUT - Patrol and Guard Duties Police “Scut”, autonomous police agency, involved in the patrolling of public spaces and guard duties of governmental buildings, subordinated to General Police Commissariat, FULGER - Special Brigade Police “Fulger”, autonomous police agency, subordinated directly to the Minister, Carabineri