A new approach to policing in Croatia.
Employees of the Interior Ministry have in recent days received e-stickers on their ID cards, without which they will not be able to print, copy, fax or scan documents, so they will no longer be able to distribute documents without the knowledge of their superiors, reports Index.hr on September 24, 2015.
However, these are not the only news from the Interior Ministry which will on Monday present its new pilot project called “e-Police”, which could become reality as early as October, first in the Zagreb police department, and then in the Split-Dalmatia, Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Osijek-Baranja Counties.
The police in uniform will carry cameras that will record their interactions with the citizens, and the recordings will be kept for three months in case of any disputes. Citizens who are approached by the police will have to be warned the conversation is being recorded on camera. In addition to cameras on uniforms, the police will in the future carry tablets that will be connected to the police information system. These will enable them to immediately enter the necessary information into the system, which will thus be more up to date. With the introduction of the new system, the police will be able to perform various checks on persons and vehicles.
Thanks to the new project, in the future the citizens will have the opportunity to record criminal offenses and immediately send the recordings to the police whose employees in the nearest operational-communication centre will see the photos or recordings and react immediately.
The Ministry has invested five million kuna in the project. For the purposes of the project, it has already bought 200 cameras and 50 e-police systems. The Interior Ministry has thus joined the trend which started a few years ago in the United States, where more and more policemen have cameras on their uniforms.
Thanks to the new project, the police shall at all times have various data available. It will also better communicate with other state bodies and international organizations, while the number of errors will be reduced.
The traffic police will use the new system to record offenses, traffic accidents, fines and penalties. The criminal police and others will be able to document the crime scenes and evidence and communicate with the judiciary.
