Towns forced to abandon local police services
The concept of a helpful police officer who is there to protect and inform rather than harass is fairly new to the Czech Republic. After the overthrow of communism 13 years ago there was a concerted effort to erase the memory of the dreaded communist police and create a police force that would be trusted and respected. The country's national police underwent a thorough overhaul and with the process of decentralization of power, cities, towns and villages across the country started financing their own local police departments. Now sadly, that process is being hampered by a lack of funds and many towns are having to close down their local police stations.
It's happening to police officers in a dozen towns across the country. They have received letters from their town hall thanking them for services rendered and informing them that those services will not be needed in the future. "They've done a great job and people here are sorry to see them go" the mayor of Vejprty, a town of thirty thousand people in north western Bohemia, told journalists after announcing that the local police station would be closed down as of May.
The inhabitants of Vejprty are not pleased with the decision despite the fact that it will save a badly needed 1.5 million crowns to be used for the maintenance of school buildings. Many people feel that state police officers, who are overworked and underpaid, will not be as dedicated in doing the small but important tasks that were the local officers' daily bread. This includes their presence close to school buildings, play-grounds and busy roads where drivers frequently fail to respect the set speed limit. In some ways the smaller towns and villages, where the local officers are well-known community members and where national police officers make only an occasional appearance, can count themselves lucky. The question of dispensing with their local police services is simply not an issue. In time, the bigger towns such as Vejprty, Volary and Pelhrimov - all of whom have decided to close down their local police stations and rely on national police - may find that they have lost more than they saved in the process. However at this point they feel that they have no alternative. "When you are on a 25 million crown budget and have a deficit of twice that amount you save where you can," says the mayor of Vejprty. Hopefully, there will be enough to throw a goodbye party for the officers who helped to convince the locals that theirs is a respectable profession after all.
