Latvian State Police currently has a shortage of approximately 1 700 police workers, as Saeima’s Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee was told by deputy chief of State Police, chief of Main Public Order Police Department Andris Zellis.
The Saeima committee was presented with a report on the situation with road traffic safety. Zellis said that, together with road traffic monitoring, State Police has a shortage of 1 700 workers.
In the road traffic safety control department there are currently 157 vacant posts, which means the department lacks 38% of workers.
At the same time, Zellis also said structural reforms were performed in three of Latvia’s regional police departments last year. Another is planned this year.
The already reformed departments no longer have road police in their classic sense: these police officers were integrated into response offices in order to provide residents services as quickly as possible. ‘When police are deployed in response to reports of incidents, this means they resolve the problem there and are able to monitor road traffic safety,’ said Zellis.
Zellis reported that the reform has not impacted road traffic monitoring. It did, however, result in many people leaving State Police.
«Last year 570 police workers left and 191 newcomers were hired. Unfortunately, we have a shortage if workers in non-reformed units, but we are trying to implement recommendations from the State Audit in regards to road traffic monitoring. Our focus is implementing recommendations using technical means wherever possible,» said Zellis.
Latvian State Police reports shortage of approximately 1 700 workers
