THE NEW police leadership and Justice Ministry are determined “to break the code of silence” prevailing for years in the police force, said Justice Minister Loucas Louca yesterday.
Speaking after a closed-door session of the House Legal Affairs Committee to discuss corruption in the force, Louca said that both he and the new police chief aimed “to break this code of silence” which has been prevalent in the force for years.
The minister stressed the need to end the tolerance of criminal activity in the force and phenomenon of covering-up for other colleagues. He asked the House Committee for help in making the necessary changes to the law that will make the police more effective. The laws and regulations dealing with the Police Academy also need to be changed, said Louca.
The Committee meeting was called and the minister, police chief and acting head of the central prison invited after a series of scandals rocked the police force and prison service, highlighting rampant corruption among its members. Some of whom have been implicated in the escape of a convicted rapist and murderer and the attempted purchase of a rocket launcher while another was killed by a hail of bullets, leading investigators to find thousands of unaccounted for euros in his car.
In discussing some of the measures being contemplated to tackle the “rot and corruption” in the force, the minister said the police had to become a long-term career choice for new recruits, not a temporary option.
“Neither is it our goal to create a police force full of graduates, educated people, which is lacking from an operational perspective,” he added.
One option is to give academy students an allowance, while keeping them in the academy during their studies, and allowing them out only on the weekends.
The academy’s educational programmes also had to change “to make the police more modern,” he said.
“As things stand, we see that the police force is not moving forward,” added Louca, who noted that the criteria for hiring would “definitely be changing”.
Being an academy graduate was not enough, “It can’t be. He has to be a good police officer too”.
Chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee Ionas Nicolaou said the new police chief Michalis Papageorgiou told the committee that the code of silence and unacceptable solidarity among colleagues perpetuated and widened corruption in the force.
The DISY deputy highlighted the Committee’s readiness “to promote legislation which protects members of the police from daily dangers and temptations which exist and to restore public confidence in the force.”
The Committee suggested “priority be given to examining the formalisation of interchangeability in the police and implementing a system of submitting capital statements,” said Nicolaou.
Tolerance of criminal behaviour which allowed the darker sides of the force act with impunity had to end, along with cover-ups, said the Committee Chairman.
“The code of silence and mistaken solidarity among colleagues in the police aimed at protecting certain members is unacceptable and must stop,” he said.
Nicolaou suggested the introduction of psychometric tests in the force.
DIKO deputy Andreas Angelides told reporters that the minister and police chief planned to submit more information on their plans to tackle corruption by early September.
