The Independent Police Complaints Authorities’ Network (IPCAN) is an informal network of exchange and cooperation amongst independent structures in charge of external control of security forces. These bodies, mainly from European Union member states, receive and process complaints against public security forces, and sometimes, against private ones as well.
Today IPCAN brings together 22 members (see members list here)
History of the Network
The « Independent Police Complaints Authorities’ Network » (IPCAN) was set up at the initiative of the Defender of Rights (Défenseur des Droits) to allow bodies with similar or related missions to exchange on issues of common interest, promote best practices and adopt common high standards.
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The Defender of Rights is an institution created in 2011 and in charge, amongst others, of security ethics. In 2012, it initiated bilateral exchanges with a few foreign counterparts and international institutions competent in the field of Fundamental Rights in order to broader its perspective on the issue of identity checks. Following these exchanges, on 8 October 2012, an international Conference was organised in Paris, on “Identity checks and police-public relations” enabling security forces and police complaints institutions to exchange on Stop and Search pratices tools.
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On May 27-28 2013, the French institution brought together eight of its counterparts in Paris, in the framework of a seminar on “The role of independent external security forces”.
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The purpose of this meeting was to discuss issues of common interest such as : alternative dispute resolution between citizens and law enforcement, disciplinary sanctions, palpations, integral search and the use of intermediate force weapons. This first meeting marked the actual creation of the network (see the proceedings of this seminar in the events section).
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A second IPCAN meeting was held on March 23, 2015, in Paris, on “Democratic maintenance of Law and order during public demonstrations in Europe”. Beyond members of the IPCAN network, this meeting was open to many practitioners, law enforcement officers, specialists in the field of maintenance and restoration of order, representatives of the Council of Europe and the OSCE , as well as researchers competent in this field.
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The conclusions of this meeting led to a number of recommandations, notably the need for standards, on the one hand, for the necessary and proportionate use of weapons by law enforcement agencies, and on the other hand with regard to the independence of security forces external control institutinos. .
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In September 2017, in the context of the terrorist attacks in Europe, the French Defender of Rights (Défenseur des Droits) and the Council of Europe decided to co-organize a third meeting of the IPCAN network in Strasbourg, on “Respecting fundamental rights in the context of the fight against terrorism”.
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The 4th IPCAN seminar was organised in Paris on the 14th of December on the issue of : Police conduct of law enforcement services in their relationships with migrants in Europe.
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Finally, a 5th seminar was organized in Paris on 17 and 18 December 2019 on “Relations of the police and the population: challenges and practices“. It was hosted by the Defender of Rights (Défenseur des Droits) and the FRA and looked into the different moments when police and the population interact and when tensions can arise. The seminar focused on discrimination and profiling in particular during police stop and searches, the management of public demonstrations as well as the protection of victims and vulnerable groups.
History of seminars and conferences
For more information and to access the documentation on each of the seminar topics, click on the image below.