Police, Rescue, Border Guard Await Organizational Changes
Parliament passed a law further reforming the still new organizational structure of police, rescue and border guard agencies, whose regional centers will be consolidated under central headquarters beginning next year.
During the 2004 police reforms, 17 regional prefectures were assembled into four. The changes continued in 2010, as the police, rescue service, immigration services, and border guard, were all merged under the joint Police and Border Guard Board.
When the changes to boost efficiency are implemented next month, the four regional command centers of both the police and rescuers will be subjected to top-down management by central headquarters for each organization. In addition, a single emergency call center will be established for the Rescue Board, which currently has call centers in each of its four regions.
Through a step-by-step transition, the joint call center will also begin answering police and border guard related calls, so that by 2014 all emergency calls are made to a single phone number - 112.
Also, the Interior Ministry recently announced its intention to reestablish the former Central Crime Investigation Department, shut down in 2009.
The Police and Border Guard, already facing layoffs due to a lack of funding, may suffer additional job cuts as a result of the reforms. The last substantial layoffs in the police force were in 2009, when 129 people were let go.
Ott Tammik
