Police want to be relieved of some duties

Police need to be relieved of a lot of their responsibilities to properly be able to carry out their job of protecting the public, the force said on Friday.

In a brief statement, it outlined that police had long ago requested to be relieved of duties such as enforcing the smoking ban, monitoring noise pollution and checking if premises have permits to sell alcoholic drinks, which could be carried out by other state services.

The state needs to make the change soon so as to allow police to deal with ‘increasing duties to manage the safety and protection of citizens, which include new forms of organised crime, internet crime and asymmetric threats such as terrorism’.

Despite increased duties and shortage of staff over the past five years the force has managed to report 20,000 cases of the smoking ban being broken, it added.

The statement followed discussions a day earlier during a House watchdog committee examining the auditor-general’s recommendations to the police force, primarily over cutting down costs by using their own premises and not renting out.

Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou had said a study to identify which tasks should not fall under the police’s wing is underway.

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