Prague, April 24 (CTK) – The number of Czech police is to rise by 1100 people in 2017 and by 2020, about 4000 people should join the corps, some 1500 of whom would reinforce the foreigner police, Police President Tomas Tuhy said on public Czech Television (CT) yesterday.
The number of police in the Czech Republic with a population of 10.5 million is to rise from 39,497 last year to about 44,000 in 2020, Tuhy said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec on CT.
He said the years 2017 and 2018 would see the biggest increases – over 1000 each year, while the trend in the following years will be decreasing and in 2020, some 600 new police would come.
The number of police will be raised in reaction to the new needs, such as cyber crime and the terrorism threat, Tuhy said.
The foreigner police are to take on 1500 people instead of the planned 740 in the years to come.
Tuhy said the checks of foreigners’ stay in the Czech Republic will be intensified, also in connection with the million of migrants who are in Germany.
As soon as they gain protection, they will be free to move around the Schengen Area, he said.
The government interrupted in January a debate on the police concept also because of Finance Minister Andrej Babis’s (ANO) objections. He did not like the estimates that put the costs at of 8.3 billion crowns.
Tuhy said yesterday he has reached agreement on the new, more detailed concept with both Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) and Babis.
The concept will first be discussed by the relevant committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Then it will return to the government that would discuss it in May, Tuhy said.
($1=24.014 crowns)
