Bid to get police out of offices to fight crime
An Interior Ministry drive to improve the country’s policing aims to get one in five officers now working desk jobs out onto the streets fighting crime. More than 500 office employees are to be transferred to «active» posts, the ministry said yesterday. They will join 855 officers who formerly had desk jobs and have been transferred into active policing jobs since May. The ministry says it aims to reduce to an absolute minimum the number of police staff involved with bureaucracy. Police Chief Vassilis Tsiatouras reportedly wants to go even further, considering the potential merging of police units to trim the number of male and female officers in office jobs. The proposed changes have fueled fears that offices might not operate effectively with less staff and that former administrative officers might not adapt well to working on the streets.
