February 2006 groups or about plans being made for specific hostile actions. Such intelligence requires police to build relationships of trust and good communication with all ethnic groups, and to develop contacts with reliable and unbiased sources of information. Systematic indicators need to be developed so that information about levels of ethnic tension can be gathered and compared over time and from different geographical regions. Such indicators need to be monitored nationally as well as locally. Other public authorities, such as local or regional governments, and NGOs may also be able to contribute to the monitoring of such tensions. While detailed information used in such monitoring may need to be confidential, it may be important for police or governmental authorities to make their assessment publicly available in certain circumstances (for example, if the mass media or extremist groups are, for their own purposes, exaggerating the actual levels of tension). States should ensure that systems for monitoring ethnic tensions are established by police and function effectively at both local and national levels, and that responsibility for collecting and managing such data is clearly assigned to particular staff members and that these staff members receive training for carrying out this role. States should also ensure that all police officers clearly understand the importance of their role in preventing ethnic tension and conflict, and that this role is reflected in police training generally. The training needs to ensure that senior police and operational managers have a good understanding of the potential causes and dynamics of ethnic conflict, have good mediation skills, and appreciate how through leadership the public authority of the police can be used to secure the commitment of potentially conflictual groups to find non-violent solutions. States also need to ensure that 'prevention of ethnic conflict' is not understood by police to justify repressive actions that infringe minority rights, but that preventive actions should form part of wider policies to promote the integration of minorities and good inter-ethnic relations. The legitimacy and effectiveness of the police in securing commitment to non-violent solutions among all ethnic groups will depend directly on whether the police are perceived and trusted to act fairly towards all groups in accordance with human rights. 22. Police also need to be trained and equipped to manage civil disturbances and incidents of inter-ethnic conflict in a professional and non-partisan manner, ^0