Abstract
This article discusses the implementation of human rights within police systems from a socio-legal point of view. It contributes to debates on the dynamics between law and society. Human rights law seek social change, which is partly directed at those who commit abuses. In many parts of the world people associate policing with human rights violations. Subsequently police reform is initiated. Through police human rights strategies, formal human rights law is implemented within police systems. In reality, however, the empirical effect of this kind of reform is difficult to substantiate. By focusing on the social fields in which law enforcement officials operate, their compliance and resistance to the implementation of human rights is conceptualised.