University guard training to be completed next week
After four months, the training of the 400 newly hired special guards who will staff the university campus police forces will be completed next week on May 17.
The training began on January 17 at the Komotini police academy in northeastern Greece, with the special guards attending courses in criminal procedure, constitutional law and criminology, among others.
The completion of the training coincides with recent incidents at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University that saw riot police clashing with students opposed to the creation of a library in an area that had been occupied for 34 years before it was evacuated by law enforcement.
The force has been deemed necessary by the government to tackle decades of rampant lawlessness at universities. However, opponents of the move, mainly from left-wing parties, argue it threatens academic freedom established after the end of military rule in the 1970s.
