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The Civil Protection Ministry is planning to create a Bureau of cases against police arbitrariness. Also, during the following two months amendments will be made to the right to impose disciplinary sanctions on policemen.

“70 000 policemen are working in the Security department and unfortunately there are cases of police arbitrariness,” admits Minister Hrisohoidis. He announced immediate actions, which the Ministry will undertake and said that he will not allow the policemen’s image to be ruined just because of few cases of unprofessionalism. According to Hrisohoidis until now this problem has not been addressed seriously.

One of the last examples of police unprofessionalism is the case with the two policemen from the police station in Agios Panteleimonas. They hit woman and put handcuffs on her in front of the eyes of her 2 years old child. They did this because they heard a woman’s voice screaming “Animals” and supposed that the young mother was addressing them. The policemen have been charged with inappropriate behavior and abuse. Regarding their case the Minister said that they will leave immediately and will never come back.

In order to limit such cases the Civil Protection Ministry is making amendments in the rights of policemen to apply disciplinary sanctions and is also accelerating the process of examining complaints. All complaints will be dealt with within 30 days. The new Bureau will function separately from the Police Department, so that all complaints are reviewed objectively. This Bureau will also employ law experts, whose mandate will be 2 years and will be able to be renewed only once. The bill for the creation of the Bureau will be voted for after the plan is discussed with citizens, civil unions and syndicate organizations.

On November 30 the Civil Protection Ministry is planning to open a new online forum, which will allow direct communication between policemen and the Minister. “We are standing next to the police and not across from them. Though, they need to become more professional and to respect citizen rights,” said the Minister. The forum will be active for three months and its goals are to gather comments, proposals, personal viewpoints and attacks.