National police presents activity report for 2016

Chisinau, 31 January /MOLDPRES/- The government approval of the Police Development Strategy for 2016-2020 was the greatest achievement of the police authorities in 2016. The head of the National Inspectorate of Police, Alexandru Pinzari, made the statements today.

“This strategy will enable the national police to become more efficient, more responsible and receptive to citizens’ needs. Another achievement was the launch of a pilot project – community police in four districts of the country: Cahul, Anenii Noi, Chisinau and Balti, having a new concept on police. An important topic has been and continues to be optimizing police, even if budgetary resources are not sufficient to equip employees with the required things. Due to financial support from the US Embassy in Moldova and the EU Delegation, it was possible to purchase 59 units of transport, equipment and modern devices for investigating crimes”, Pinzari said.

At the same time, Pinzari said that during 2016, national police faced problems such as high staff turnover and insufficient and outdated capacities of police training. The only basis for modernizing the police last year was financial support provided by foreign development partners, amounting to 85 million lei. “Last year, more than 20 per cent of employees left the police system against 2015, and double compared to 2013, because of poor working conditions, low salaries and outdated methods of recruiting new specialists”, he said.

At the same time, the official said that over 38,000 crimes had been recorded in 2016, up by about 6 per cent against the previous year. Most offenses are in the category of lighter and less serious (knavery, theft and swindle). Also, during the last five years, a 13-per cent- decrease in rate of road accident was registered, as well as in number of people injured or dead by 18 and respectively 30 per cent.

For 2017, the leadership of the inspectorate set as priorities elaboration and implementation of concept of community police in all regions, police modernization, improvement of management system in human resources, by recruiting, training, remunerating, assessing and promoting, implementing electronic filing system and managing cases notified by phone, as well as expanding the use of computer applications in police.   

(Reporter P. Beregoi, editor A. Răileanu)