“Greetings, dear colleagues, I will try to succinctly present the vision and reforms of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I hope that we will have an opportunity to discuss the most challenging issues in the upcoming Question&Answer format.
Nowadays, our goal is to uphold the law and order and to create public safety guarantees. At the same time, this aim should be embodied by restored trust between the citizens and the law enforcement agency.
In order to attain this goal our policy will be strict but fair and we hope that in this position our society will stand with the law enforcement bodies.
At present, in addition to the fundamental challenges that the Ministry faces, such as fight against organized crime, safety guarantees and border protection, the new challenges arise: such as, protection of human rights, prevention-oriented police justice, introduction of modern technologies. Consequently, taking into consideration the key goals which were previously mentioned, we prioritize the following directions.
Today, the implementation of reforms in the criminal police and undoubtedly in the field of border protection serves as primarily important issue. Additionally, further development and reforming process of the patrol police department. We acknowledge that success of the Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot be achieved without well- functioning and politically independent police system. We believe that the further steps in this direction should be timely and rapid. Regarding the reform of criminal police, we realize that the organized crime is the key challenge. The criminal police should be more effective and should more rapidly react to the challenges that our society faces. This reform has been developed and its main directions will have structural character.
In terms of criminal police, several significant parts should be highlighted. Firstly, this implies the strengthening of investigative components. Of course, the detectives division should be separated, however, there is a need for the unified synergy effect. Nevertheless, we believe that the institution of public safety officer the so-called institution of district inspectors should be detached, that should even further strengthen the relations with the citizens. These are the key directions that should act as foundation for the conceptual reform process and further development of the criminal police. In this direction, the initial outline of the reform is available and it will be discussed with the international partners in the nearest future. At the same time, I assure you that as soon as the reform is finalized, which is scheduled to happen in February, we express the readiness to present it in any desired format at the Parliament.
The next priority that requires the rapid reforming process is border protection. The border police represents one of the key components of the Ministry. However, the challenges identified by us today confirm that we have no time for delay. Fortunately, our international colleagues and partners support us in this direction and with their help we have started working on concrete, the most critical sectors such as the improvement of infrastructural component as well as intelligence-led border protection. One of the greatest challenges we face is the qualification of our staff. We are already in communication with our international partners to retrain the best personnel who currently work in the system. Of course, we should highlight the positive component of our cooperation with the international partners, such as border protection. We have achieved significant results and I think that we will continue working in this direction.
As I have previously mentioned, it is time to move to the next stage of patrol police reform. As you are aware, several years ago the patrol police went through the process of reform with significant success. However, I would like to mention that the key component of the reform targeted the so-called front office. Unfortunately, the processes and procedures that should be within the system, within the institution, need further improvement. As a matter of fact, institutional arrangement and the processes in the patrol police require additional development. There is no mechanism available similar to digitalization. Consequently, we already witness the trend of increasing demand for the patrol and police services among the citizens. If we fail to resolve the internal processes first, the reform and development of patrol police will be difficult. Therefore, the primary tasks that the patrol police faces are institutional rearrangement, development of its internal procedures and digitalization where available, in order to become more rapid and flexible. The police services will be further enhanced and will be tailored to the needs of public safety.
In the field of modern approaches, in addition to these three chief components, such as criminal police, border protection and patrol police, we believe that our technologies, the components of information and analysis are equally important. We will be able to witness the results of the reforms in case we continue content-based and constant reforms in the system.
These reforms will be targeted mainly towards technologies, information and analysis. Intelligence-led policing, safety are the main components and serves as the goal, towards which the Ministry will be striving in the upcoming years.
I would like to underline that one of our most important challenges today is human resource management. It is clear to us, that the infrastructure and institutional order that exists today in the Academy of the Ministry is an important component however, there is room for using it more efficiently. We think that police Academy should be oriented on professional education, rather than higher education. Therefore, we are planning to make relevant rearrangements in this direction as well, since the Academy should act as the only source through which police officers are recruited in the system.
I would like to once again emphasize the importance of human rights protection. We are witnessing major challenges in this regard, therefore, the decision was made to establish an additional department within the central office, the key function of which will be working in the direction of human rights protection. We believe that it will act as a temporary department which will function until the reform process and improvement of the investigative component in the Ministry are fully complete. This special structural unit will focus on the problems related to violence against women, juvenile delinquency and etc. The recent developments in the society have exposed the existing challenges, precisely, the detection of facts of violence among juveniles. The Juvenile Justice Code that was adopted one year and a half ago and entered into force on January 1, 2016, demonstrated some positive results. Certainly, we cannot underestimate the achievements, such as reduction of recidivism rate to only 9% as a result of diversion, nonetheless, we also have to point out the problems that we are having regarding juveniles under the age of 14 – increased crime rate, especially theft.
After the recent tragic events, we have closely worked with the Ministry of education in this direction and it became apparent, that there are number of structural and institutional problems that we have to work jointly.
It is absolutely clear to us that the office of resource officers has to undergo through certain reforms in order to increase its effectiveness. Undoubtedly, institutionally it has to be subordinated to the Ministry of Education, rather than schools. Moreover, the connection between the institute of resource officers and patrol police has to be strengthened. According to our observations, the referral system fails to work efficiently and this is the direction that should ensure the resocialization of juveniles in the shortest time possible.
Let me inform you that since 2010, when the referral procedures were created, the commission received only 39 requests, half of which was initiated by family members. Thus, today the system boarding schools and schools is ineffective, and functions solely in Samtredia. This component needs to be transformed as well jointly with the Ministry of Education.
I would also like to underline, that we will continue to work actively towards deepening international cooperation. Traditional directions, such as relations with Europol and Interpol, will become further advanced and enhanced. We also rely on our colleagues and partners, who affirmed their interest to actively participate in our reform process and kindly offered their technical and financial support.
It is important to emphasize the importance of road safety. As a result of the reforms carried out in the recent years, we’ve made some progress which is displayed in the statistics, however, unfortunately, Georgia is among those Eastern European countries that have unfavorable situation regarding road safety. The introduction of technological component is in urgent need and together with strengthening enforcement, we will most probably have to tighten the legislation too.
I would like to mention that along with current reforms we have identified content-based directions that will work altogether, such as improving investigative mechanisms, intelligence-led policing services and human resource management.
Those are the main challenges that we are recognizing.
We are stating with full responsibility that the two reforms pertaining the criminal police and border protection will be launched in the upcoming months and we hope that with the similar approaches we can witness the results in 6-12 months perspective.
I would like once again emphasize that in spite of the exiting perception in the society according to which the crime rate has increased, of course, there are some, reasonable grounds, however, we should all acknowledge that without effective cooperation with the society it will be impossible to overcome such challenges. Consequently, we will do our best to be as open and transparent as possible to gain public trust that is crucial to deliver police services to the society.
Where available, we will protect the honor of the police and interests of each police officer. In case of necessity we will act rapidly and according to the law.
I hope we can implement these reforms with you in the nearest future.
Thank you for your attention!”
