Riga, October 14, LETA. The new Chief of the State Police (VP) Armands Ruks allows the transfer of certain LP functions and tasks to private companies and municipal police.
At the sitting of the Saeima Defense, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Commission on Wednesday, Ruks reminded that the VP consists of the Security Department of Special Objects of the Main Order Police Department, which is engaged in security of various objects, such as the embassy.
“Do all these objects really need to be guarded by the State Police?” Ruk pointed out rhetorically and recalled that there is a practice in Sweden for the security of such facilities to be implemented by private security companies.
Ruks did not deny that there are objects that the police should guard, but this issue needs to be reconsidered, because in this way the police will be freed and diverted to other more important tasks of the LP.
Speaking about the cooperation of the LP with the municipal police, Ruks pointed out that this issue should be carefully considered. However, he did not deny that the current situation is such that when the municipal police visually detect a drunk driver on the street, the traffic police is called, which in turn deals with the formation of the violation.
“The public is already looking at the police in general. Regardless of which is the municipal police, but which VP. (..) Why can’t the municipal police be given breathalysers to detect a violation? There is nothing complicated there,” Ruks pointed out.
However, the new head of the LP emphasized that the issues of cooperation between the LP and the municipal police should be discussed with all involved parties, including the municipalities. “We must not make ill-considered decisions,” Ruks added.
Ruks also intends to form a cyber police within the VP. He welcomed the proposal of the Minister of the Interior Sanda Ģirģens (KPV LV) to establish such a unit, as the police are increasingly confronted with the use of the Internet as a tool and a place to commit a crime.
At present, it is not known whether the cyber police department or office will be established, what its composition will be and cooperation with other structural units of the LP. LETA has written several times that currently the Economic Crime Control Department has a department that fights cybercrime and crimes in the field of intellectual property protection.
Ruks recalled that, for example, the VP consists of a structural unit dealing with the fight against pornography, whose job is to analyze the information available on the Internet.
“It’s madness! The more they do, the more these crimes grow. The amount of work is very large when we detect this type of latent crime. I believe that cyber policing has a great future and technology needs to be developed,” Ruck said.
–
