The causes for police violence... A special Belgian approach to police alcoholism
In the course of my studies on the internal rules applying to police in Belgium, I came across to a Belgian project of Code of deontology which has some very interesting articles. Before reading that document which is only a project (and requires knowledge of French or Dutch), I suggest you however to log on to this site of Pr. O'Connor & Craven who have a course at the North Carolina Wesleyan College on "Police in society" and a special chapter dedicated to "police deviance". I suggest your reading the part "Drinking & drugs abuse on or off duty". The lecturer stresses that "there are endless opportunities to drink or take drugs while on duty (...) and the reasons for it are many: to get high, addiction, stress, burnout, or alienation from the job. (...) It sets a bad example for public relations. It will affect judgment, and lead to the greater likelihood of deadly force or traffic accidents".
That is setting the framework of the consequences of alcohol abuse. Now, in France (and in Belgium, of course), there is a certain reticence to consider the effects of alcohol on the behaviour of police, though the rules are clear: no alcohol while on duty. There is a subculture of heavy drinking among the oldest policemen, subculture which has had its use for the police authorities: riot policemen are certainly more keen on beating demonstrators after having had some alcohol to keep their spirits up... But since alcohol is a problem, and since it often is used to mask the use of drugs, authorities are starting to take interest into that problem. Some recent incidents (on the 17th October 2004, a policeman killed one of his colleagues in the police precinct of the city of Nantes in France) have prompted a heightened repression for alcohol on duty. Read for instance the article of the French newspaper Le Monde over here for an update on internal sanctions in the National Police in France.
But this lengthy introduction was essentially meant to attract your attention on the article 42 of the Belgian project of Deontology Code for policemen. This article foresees that while policemen cannot consume alcohol on duty, the chief of service may authorise "for exceptional circumstances" a consumption of alcohol. Even if it is precised that this authorisation may not cover up "any abuses", it is easy to conceive a police commissionner authorising his men to drink alcohol while they are expecting a demonstration in overheated vans. The fact that drunk policemen are more easily violent, probably does not enter into account... That disposition is the door open to all abuses and should be stricken down from the code!
In a conclusion, we might thus notice the instrumental use of alcohol to control policemen... at the cost of the security of citizen.
That is setting the framework of the consequences of alcohol abuse. Now, in France (and in Belgium, of course), there is a certain reticence to consider the effects of alcohol on the behaviour of police, though the rules are clear: no alcohol while on duty. There is a subculture of heavy drinking among the oldest policemen, subculture which has had its use for the police authorities: riot policemen are certainly more keen on beating demonstrators after having had some alcohol to keep their spirits up... But since alcohol is a problem, and since it often is used to mask the use of drugs, authorities are starting to take interest into that problem. Some recent incidents (on the 17th October 2004, a policeman killed one of his colleagues in the police precinct of the city of Nantes in France) have prompted a heightened repression for alcohol on duty. Read for instance the article of the French newspaper Le Monde over here for an update on internal sanctions in the National Police in France.
But this lengthy introduction was essentially meant to attract your attention on the article 42 of the Belgian project of Deontology Code for policemen. This article foresees that while policemen cannot consume alcohol on duty, the chief of service may authorise "for exceptional circumstances" a consumption of alcohol. Even if it is precised that this authorisation may not cover up "any abuses", it is easy to conceive a police commissionner authorising his men to drink alcohol while they are expecting a demonstration in overheated vans. The fact that drunk policemen are more easily violent, probably does not enter into account... That disposition is the door open to all abuses and should be stricken down from the code!
In a conclusion, we might thus notice the instrumental use of alcohol to control policemen... at the cost of the security of citizen.
posted by dawnofeurope | 1:45 pm
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