By Athena Karsera
TOUGHER criteria are to be put in place for the appointment of temporary special policemen, once a proposal by the police force and the Justice Ministry is approved by the Plenum, the House Ethics Committee heard yesterday.
The Committee met to discuss problems in the appointment of temporary police officers and specialised staff in the police force.
Akel deputy Costas Papacostas, who raised the issue before the Committee, told deputies of the problems that often arose when the police hired often untrained officers on jobs that appeared less demanding, such as policing embassies; but if trouble did arise, the temporary policemen may not have the know-how to deal with the situation.
Moreover, the ‘temporary’ officers often remained in their positions for decades, he said, or were moved to posts requiring more responsibility, while trained policemen were sent to cover the less-specialised tasks.
“Today the phenomenon has arisen where people with no police knowledge work in offices and police stations while trained policemen work at the airports and embassies,” he said.
Papacostas added that temporary policemen were not eligible for promotion, and so had no real motivation to excel at their job.
The committee also heard of the problems that had arisen over the status of civilian experts serving the police. Pilots, boat captains, computer specialists and others were sometimes called in to assist police in a specific area when no police personnel were able to carry out a specific duty.
According to committee chairman Andreas Christou: “The essence of the problem is that while police rules mention temporary police officers, these people often end up having permanent position but without the rights and benefits of regular policemen.”
Christou suggested that the police either open up permanent positions to cover these needs or make sure that temporary officers served for only a short period of time with the possibility of being recalled in the future.
He also raised the question of how these temporary officers were selected, wondering if rumours of nepotism might indeed be true.
Papacostas blamed the situation on “incorrect handling and neglect” both by the police and the Justice Ministry. He said such mistakes struck at morale in the force and gave a bad public image, while also costing the tax-payer money.
In his Ministry’s defence, Justice Minister Nicos Koshis agreed that the problem had been going on for several years and had damaged the police’s image.
As a solution to the temporary policemen problem, Koshis suggested that candidates for the police academy who passed the necessary exams but were not recruited for lack of places could be enlisted as temporary police officers. This, he said, would ensure that they at least had the necessary academic knowledge for the job.
If there was no such surplus, Koshis suggested separate exams, with the opportunity of recruits later being taken on as part of the permanent force.
The Director-general of the Justice Ministry, Andreas Panayiotou, went on to inform the Committee that the new proposal on hiring temporary policemen would appear before the House, “hopefully by the end of April.”
Koshis said that, until then, there would be no more recruitment of temporary officers, “even if positions are open,” and that the proposal also included details of specific training for recruits.
On the specialised officers, Panayiotou said that a study was being carried out on the issue to avoid further complications on their status.
Deputy police-chief Andreas Christofides admitted that the police were not happy with the way the issues of temporary and specialised officers were handled, but noted that changes were being made.
The President of the Cyprus Police Association, Stelios Ioannou, said that the temporary officers were “a cancer for the police force.”
He said someone could work as a temporary officer for “more than thirty years and receive no benefits,” and suggested that the entire system of temporary officers be scrapped.
