Legality control

Last update

In the context of the legality control and monitoring recommendations made by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) in its report of  April 29th 2004, the IGP also proceeds with regular controls of Police detention and retention facilities at national level.

As marked in article 5 of the Grand Ducal Regulation of December 21st 2004 on the authorization for the creation of a file on people having taken a fine in the matter of traffic circulation, the IGP carries out an annual analysis on the cancellations or deletions of fines of this file.

The control of the legality of Police action is foreseen in articles 4 to 6 of the Law of July 18th 2018.

In the context of this mission, the IGP analyses the execution of laws and regulations and reports /failures to the authority concerned. It owns a general and permanent inspection right and can undertake all the necessary investigations and verifications in relation to Police activities. Analysed failures can be governance or management issues, but can also come from individual behaviour of a Police member.

In practice, the legality control is most often carried out based on a filed complaint or a denunciation by a citizen, a public authority or another interested party. However, the IGP can also initiate an investigation on its own when it gets information about a potential breach or dysfunction through the press, the social media, or when thematic controls, penal or disciplinary investigations lead to particular findings.

The IGP also initiates an investigation if a police agent uses his service firearm against a person or a vehicle and no bodily harm has resulted from this action.

The following procedure is essential in the domain of legality control:

  • the IGP gets informed/takes note about a potential breach or dysfunction, then checks/verifies if it is has the competence and determines whether it undertakes an investigation itself or whether it transfers the task to the Police;
  • the IGP always informs the claimant about the investigations carried out;
  • it might also issue recommendations and monitor their follow-up.