On Wednesday, a pair of Polish police officers became part of the police patrol in the town of Mladá Boleslav. Although there are no issues with most of the large group of Polish workers in the city, there are also Poles who do not respect the local laws, and Czech patrols often do not know how to deal with them.
In recent years, it has been proven that Poles have more respect for Polish police officers.
“I’ve been here in the past, and I can confirm that we often encountered Poles who drank too much alcohol and were aggressive. However, they have respect for our uniforms,” confirmed the Polish police officer Marek, who came to the Czech town with another colleague for two months.
“In front of us, they can’t make excuses that they don’t understand, and they are also afraid that the punishment will be transferred to Poland,” added Marek, pointing out that some Poles took advantage of the language barrier while trying to avoid punishment.
In Poland, tougher laws apply, so some foreign workers are worried that punishment imposed in Czechia would apply in Poland as well. The project of joint patrols of Czech and foreign police officers started in Mladá Boleslav in 2018.
“We had a good experience, so we invited the foreign police last year as well, but at that time, their presence was not that visible on the streets. This year, it seemed that the foreign police would not be able to arrive due to the pandemic. However, after the intervention of the Ministry of the Interior, it all worked out,” said Robin Povšík, the deputy mayor of Mladá Boleslav.
Poles, Ukrainians and Slovaks are the most numerous foreign minorities in the Mladá Boleslav region, where they come to work, mainly in the automotive industry.
“We want patrols to be present on the city streets, in parks and shopping malls, and other places where the law is often violated. The most common offenses are drinking alcohol in public, small skirmishes and theft,” added Povšík.
In the past, joint patrols of Czech and foreign police officers were also present in other Czech regions. However, this year’s pandemic thwarted these projects.
“The Polish patrol in Mladá Boleslav is now the only one in our territory,” added Central Bohemia Police Director Václav Kučera.
Title image: Join patrol of Czech and Polish police officers in Mladá Boleslav (The official website of Mladá Boleslav)
