Police custody: preventive or coercive police measure

The scientific article is an attempt to find out whether police care belongs to a preventive or coercive police measure: It has been established that in view of the legal basis, police custody is clearly classified as preventive police measures. It is emphasized that the essence of police custody is the limitation of some constitutional human rights, although the purpose of applying the measure is preventive - prevention of offenses committed by persons subject to police custody and in relation to such persons. It was determined that police custody should be carried out taking into account, first of all, guarantees of human rights and freedoms, guided by the principles of the rule of law. The analysis of the theory of administrative law and the normative legal grounds for the use of police custody allowed the author to attribute the latter to measures of administrative coercion, namely, measures of administrative prevention. It has been proven that the purpose of applying administrative prevention measures coincides with the purpose of applying police supervision. The article delimits police custody from the delivery and detention of the offender. The author dispels the myth about the identity of police custody, delivery and administrative detention, because they fundamentally differ in their purpose, the place where the person is delivered, the terms of application, and the legal meaning. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the parallel application of other preventive police measures (surface inspection, document verification, interviews) is possible during the implementation of any of these measures. Attention was drawn to the fact that police coercive measures (measures of physical influence, special measures) can be applied during delivery and administrative detention, but not during police custody. It was concluded that there is a platform for discussion about the affiliation of police custody to a specific type of police measures.