Police districts in Belgium are too lax about the presence of cameras, particularly when it comes to confidential conversations between a suspect in police custody and their lawyer, De Standaard reports.
From surveillance cameras that permanently film interrogation rooms to a local fire brigade that can follow police interrogations, or even a police zone that audio-records all confidential conversations, a report by the Controlling Body for Police Information (COC) makes it clear that a lot of illegal practices take place in police buildings.
In Belgium, every suspect has the right to a strictly confidential conversation with their lawyer before interrogation. They can even demand consultations with a lawyer during interrogation.
Eavesdropping, filming, recording or storing these conversations is illegal and unacceptable, stressed Frank Schuermans, member of the COC, which supervises all privacy issues within the police force.
Yet many police forces fail to adhere to legal requirements on these matters.
Cameras keep rolling during private conversations between suspects and lawyers
The COC report – for which 222 of the 235 police units provided input and 11 units were visited – shows that in over a quarter of locations, a camera system is present in the room where confidential consultation takes place. In one in eight cases, it is possible to listen to or record the conversation in real-time.
Schuermans spoke of a "diversity in approach" with different police units falling foul of the law due to unclear regulations or plain ignorance: “Nobody has a full view of what the cameras are actually doing. Even the presence of a camera can in principle be a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
The only exception to filming a conversation, without audio, is for security reasons – for example, if the suspect is aggressive. But even then, the lawyer must be informed of the camera surveillance and must be able to contest that decision at all times.
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The investigation by the COC came after a complaint last year in the police zone Erpe-Mere/Lede. A suspect deduced from reactions and remarks of police officers that the conversation with his lawyer had been bugged.
The results of the investigation are a wake-up call for the COC, especially since the police districts have been receiving federal subsidies for the past ten years to adapt infrastructure to legislation.
The COC calls upon Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) and the Board of Procurators General to clarify the issue of camera surveillance during confidential consultations.
