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Police Must Have Numbered Helmets by 1 July

The Police General Directorate has reminded chiefs of police in all of Turkey's provinces that the helmets used by riot police need to be numbered by 1 July.

Unique identification

According to the Evrensel newspaper, chiefs of police who have been transferred to other provinces have been told that they must not leave before completing the numbering system.

This practice will affect around 20,000 riot police officers. They will receive a number on their helmet which will allow others to identify them.

Officers will not be allowed to swap helmets, and on their days off the helmets will be locked up in their closets.

Hope that police violence will decrease

This identification aid has been requested by human rights organisations, particularly after the wide-spread police violence experienced on 1 May 2008. The Human Rights Watch report on police violence in Turkey, published in December 2008, called for an immediate implementation of such a system, as well as the obligation for police officers to keep their ID number visible during events.

The Parliamentary Human Rights Committee wrote in a report on riots during the Newroz celebrations in Van and Hakkari provinces in 2008 that the police needed to be better educated on how to act during events and that ID numbers needed to be clearly displayed on helmets and uniforms. (TK/AG)