Keep public order and respect for the law, protect everyone's fundamental rights, prevent and fight crime, detect crime, and assist and serve the public.

The European Code of Police Ethics is a 2001 Council of Europe recommendation to its member states. It describes the police of a society governed by the rule of law (Vorherrschaft des Rechts: the state itself is bound by law). In such a society the police have five goals:

1. Public order: keep public tranquillity and respect for law and order.
2. Fundamental rights: protect and respect everyone's fundamental freedoms and rights, especially those in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
3. Crime prevention and combat.
4. Crime detection (Aufspüren): finding out what crimes happened and who committed them.
5. Service: assisting the population and providing services.

The list holds a tension. Goals 1, 3 and 4 push towards intervening, while goal 2 limits how far the police may go. Most dilemmas in police work arise where these goals collide (see the dilemma card).

Go deeper:

• HREA: European Code of Police Ethics, Rec(2001)10 — summary of the Code's sections with links to the full text in English, French and German.

The police must be set up by law, act only in line with national and international law, work under laws that are public, clear and precise, and be subject to the same laws as ordinary citizens.

The four principles:

1. Established by law: the police is a public body created by law, not by decree or private arrangement.
2. Bound by law: every operation must comply with domestic law and the international rules the country has accepted.
3. Accessible and clear law: police legislation must be available to citizens and clear and precise enough that people can foresee what the police may do. Where needed, it is completed by regulations that are also clear and public.
4. Equal before the law: police staff are subject to the same legislation as ordinary citizens. Exceptions are allowed only where they are needed for police work to function in a democratic society (for example, being allowed to drive through a red light on an emergency call).

Principle 3 is why secret methods such as undercover investigation are ethically sensitive: they rely on the suspect not knowing what the police are doing.

Go deeper:

• HREA: European Code of Police Ethics, Rec(2001)10 — the full recommendation, including the section on the legal basis of the police.