Filenews 23 December 2023 - by Fanis Makrides
A safety net also for Police officers who are ready to report the wrong things that may happen within the body they serve.
The leadership of the Police Force has taken the appropriate action and a police provision has now been drawn up to protect those members who report violations of national and EU law that have been detected in their working environment and that legal and natural persons have been subjected to, by "whistleblowers".
Within the first 10 days of this month, it took its final form and the members of the Police were notified of the aforementioned police order, which is believed to regulate the whole issue.
This regulation aims to harmonize the Police with existing legislation (Protection of Persons Reporting Violations of EU and National Law). The Law that was passed – with efforts, the beginning of which dates back to 2016 – aimed to establish a strong and effective legal framework for the protection of employees in the public or private sector, who disclose information that came into their possession or came to their attention within their workplace.
The enactment of the legislation in May 2022 also covered Police informants, however, the police provision was necessary due to the fact that special arrangements had to be made in the Security Corps in question in order for it to be fully implemented.
Besides, points about the regulation of the issue of "whistleblowers" to the Police were made in the recent evaluation of the competent body of the Council of Europe, GRECO (Group of States against Corruption).
As "F" is aware, the most important parameters of the police layout have to do with (1) the unit that will handle whistleblowers' reports, (2) the training of the team that manages whistleblowers, but also informing the members of the corps about the legislation, (3) the measures to protect whistleblowers and (4) the right to disclose wrongdoing.
More specifically:
> The Directorate of Professional Standards & Inspections (DEPE) has been designated as responsible for the implementation of legislation in the police force, which is also the competent body of the Force to control delinquent behaviour of its members. He will be tasked with staffing a whistleblower complaint handling team. As far as the staffing of this team is concerned, the person in charge and its executives will be appointed by the director of the LLC. This "person" will be responsible for receiving, handling and following up on reports/complaints and information submitted through the prescribed procedures.
> The DEP team will prepare and distribute a relevant information manual. It will include information specified in Article 14 of the legislation (information on receiving reports and following them up). The members of the team designated as responsible for handling petitions will be trained mainly to provide information to any interested person on the reporting procedures, but also on the receipt of petitions and the implementation of follow-up measures.
> For the employees of the Police who will provide information, the provisions of the legislation for their protection will apply. This is also pointed out in the police order.
> As it follows from the provisions of the police provision, a member of the Force may make a "public disclosure", i.e. disclose information about violations, publicly to the press, the media or social media. This explicit reference to the police provision is of particular importance, since members of the Police in the recent past have not had many possibilities to report service matters publicly.
> Protection against whistleblowers is provided in the manner specified in the relevant article of the legislation and which stands as a protection shield for taking any retaliatory measures against whistleblowers and their associated persons.
In GRECO's remarks the regulation by the Police
The police order is issued shortly after GRECO made remarks about the police force in the context of the fifth evaluation round. What had been identified by the Council of Europe's competent body for the Cyprus Police had been thoroughly discussed at two meetings of the parliamentary committee on institutions in late October and early November, respectively. GRECO in paragraph 252 of its report referred to whistleblowers and police obligations, referring to the need to establish "an effective information system, not only by law but also in practice". He added that this is crucial for the police and explained why: "{...} Because of the "code of silence" that may informally prevail in hierarchical organizations, also because of the requirement of strict adherence to the principle of in-service discipline and loyalty, as well as the duty of confidentiality observed by officials. This requires the development of additional measures to encourage police officers to speak out. GRECO recommends strengthening whistleblower protection, including specialized reporting and advisory channels, as well as providing training at all levels of the Police and regular information on available legal remedies."
It should also be noted that at the meeting of the parliamentary committee on Institutions on November 8, nine points / recommendations for the Police were discussed, with the Chief of Police admitting the weaknesses highlighted in the Commission's report.
In fact, it was committed to comply with GRECO's recommendations within the next 18 months. He said the police force was receptive and willing to resolve the issues. Based on the reports made at this parliamentary session by the head of the Cypriot delegation to GRECO, Alexia Kalispera, the Cyprus Police is not at a tragic stage despite any actions that need to be taken. He commented that the GRECO evaluators who drafted the report expressed good words about the Cyprus Police, saying that it was "friendly, very open" and that it "opened its cards".
The issue of whistleblowers was raised by MP Irene Charalambidou, who in 2016 had proposed a Law with special provisions on the basis of a report, in order to regulate the issue. This was followed by the submission of a government bill dealing with informants concerning the Police and the Legal Service. Finally, Mrs. Charalambidou's Law proposal was "married" with this bill and elaborated with the Ministry of Justice during Stefi Drakou's tenure. The legal framework received Parliament's approval in 2022.
