BRATISLAVA, January 13, (WEBNOVINY) — Slovak Police Corps has a new organization structure which will, according to the Police Corps President Jaroslav Spisiak, enable strengthening the performance of service by police officers. “We found out when we took over the department that the system is deformed to the benefit of those on the commanding or non-performance positions,” explained Spisiak at a news conference on Thursday. The service itself is done by police officers serving in basic units of uniformed police, traffic police, or criminal police, he underscored.
The changes were realized within historic reform of evaluation of police officers and their career development, which has been launched. In the lower organizational units, number of police officers in direct service was increased by 1,708 people, who were transferred there from various positions. In the section of basic uniformed police 1,167 people were transferred to direct service positions, in traffic police it was 155 and criminal 386 officers. In addition, 205 commanding positions were transformed into rank and file posts.
Another aim of the changes within the Police Corps was to unify the core unit of police, i.e. criminal police. The division into sections of investigation and criminal police will be cancelled and there will be only one unit, criminal police, informed Spisiak who described the previous state as “relic of socialism, which brought nothing positive, only a constant fight about who is superior and who is subordinate between these two parts.” He considers both of these components vital for the police operation, but as one unit.
As of January 1, systematized service of criminal police has been in operation. In its units, there are two positions police investigator and an agent as an operative staff member. “Unified command, unified procedures,” said Spisiak, adding that the target state is to have only investigators, that is an officer of the criminal police as everywhere else in the world. “These officers can uncover and investigate a crime, charge an offender, and perform all actions up to an indictment,” he explained. Numbers of investigator will gradually go up by operatives, who pass the tests for investigators. According to the Police Corps President, lack of finances was one of the reasons why number of investigators could not rise despite increasing crime rate. Police plans to double their numbers.
SITA