In Ms.

Nilda Sevillas view on the round table discussion at UP IHR,

she
posed a query on how to redefine the respective roles of the
different
sectors involved in the criminal justice which includes the police
when we
adopt Restorative Justice. This is to address the human rights
violations
because as it can be observed, it is prevalent that most human
rights
violators are the police officers. If we adopt the Restorative Justice
System,
it would be appropriate give emphasis to the role of the police
officers in
handling offenders.
Police powers and human rights
Police organizations usually present themselves as a service,
force or a combination of the two. The distinction between a
service and force can be described as follows:
[The] force perspective, or vertical perspective,
is clearly seen in authoritarian policing styles
employed by many police agencies. The other
perspective is that of police as a service provider
to communities in their own areas. This service,
or horizontal, perspective is seen in community
policing and its derivatives: problem oriented
and intelligence led policing.1
Despite this conceptual difference, it is generally recognised2 that
the main functions of the police revolve around efforts to maintain
public tranquillity, and law and order, in a given society, to
protect and respect individuals fundamental rights and freedoms,
to prevent, detect and combat crime, and to provide assistance
and services to the public.

The police whether perceived by the public as a service or as a

force should play an essential role in protecting human rights.
The police are responsible for ensuring the security and safety of
individuals through enforcing the law; under international law,
police officers are obliged to fully respect human rights, but they
are also obligated to protect human rights against violations by
other individuals. In essence, their key functions call on them to
be active agents for the enjoyment of human rights: a positive
understanding of the polices role in this regard is important for
fostering the type of constructive dialogue between monitoring
bodies and the police that the preventive monitoring approach is
premised on. (Source: Association for the Prevention of torture;
Monitoring Police Custody, A Practical Guide; P 3-4)