Filenews 13 October 2023
They are running to the Police Headquarters to catch up with the timetables decided last Tuesday at the Presidential Palace for the reconstruction of the Police and the change of the policing plan.
Chief Stelios Papatheodorou committed to specific dates to make changes that will help the Police overcome the traumatic events of recent months. The first challenge is to make the Information Management and Exploitation Service, the old GSP (Information Collection Office), independent by the end of October.
This Service was until now subordinated to the YKAN and in the end it seems that it did not perform as expected. Proof of this is the fact that in the incidents both in Chloraka on August 28 and in the bloody events in Limassol on September 1, they had failed to inform about the activities of criminal elements that caused trauma to democracy with racist attacks. Now, with the autonomy of this Service, it is expected that it will focus on internal security issues, in particular monitoring of extremist elements operating on and off the pitch, crime and delinquency.
The second measure to which the commander committed is the creation of two new anti-riot platoons of 22 people each under the instructions of the MMAD. Already, there is one platoon that operates with members of the MMAD and now there will be two more, so they will be able to reinforce the police directorates all over Cyprus when they have to deal with serious situations with incidents. The creation of these two new anti-riot platoons should be done by November 6
At the same time, in the first 15 days of November, appropriate actions will be taken to strengthen the Aliens and Immigration Service of the Police. The aim is to increase returns of irregular migrants to their countries. With more police officers, the YAM will be able to speed up procedures to return foreigners deemed illegal to their countries.
The number of persons who will be transferred to this Service is not yet known, since, as "F" is informed, the Stations from which the police officers will be transferred will have to be found. It is not expected to be large, however.
The most important and difficult to implement is the fourth measure decided at the Presidential meeting and concerns the reorganization of 24 Police Departments. The difficulty is mainly focused, as reported to us by the Police, on finding the people who will replace those who will move from the offices.
As has been pointed out, this has been attempted several times in the past, but it got bogged down in the fact that the Public Administration Department did not have any other staff to undertake the office duties currently performed by police officers. It is estimated that more than 500 police officers are employed in office jobs, most of them at the Headquarters, will gradually have to be replaced with civilian personnel.
The Minister of Justice and Public Order, Anna Koukkidi Prokopiou, is determined to implement this decision, so that uniformed officers who are currently in the offices can pass to the frontline stations so that the citizen feels safe and the police presence on the streets is increased.
The 24 departments that will be reorganized in the next two and a half months are:
Department of Personnel Administration, Department of Traffic Police, Department of Combating Crime, Anti-Narcotics Service, Department of Technological Development, Department of Informatics, Criminal Investigation Service, Aliens and Immigration Service, MMAD, Port and Maritime Police, Crime Prevention Squad, Air Operations Unit, Directorate of European Union and International European Cooperation, Directorate of Airport Security, Directorate of Finance, Directorate of Professional Standards of Inspections and Audits, Police Academy, Financial Crime Directorate, Directorate for Family Violence, Cybercrime Directorate, Office for dealing with violence on playing fields, Police Stations and Subdirectorate for Case Management of Vulnerable Persons.
Digipol is coming
According to the Police modernization plan covering the period 2020-2025, it is foreseen that from January 2024 the digitalization of the Police systems will begin.
In fact, with the implementation of the Digipol system, citizens will be able to obtain a clear criminal record certificate, to be informed about the case that concerns them, digitally. Also, the police report on accidents and the receipt of complaints will be able to be obtained online.
