Pevkur: Auxiliary police officers need to go through required training
Opposition member Hanno Pevkur (Reform) believes draft legislation allowing auxiliary police officers to join the force quicker and after completing fewer training hours is not justified. The bill, which is part of a cluster of policies, will face it's first reading in the Riigikogu on Monday.
The new bill will speed up the process of becoming an auxiliary police officer due to the emergency situation and the 100-hours mandatory training currently required will not be necessary.
Currently, the position of a police officer can be granted after a 40-hour training course and if the police officer wants to patrol independently and obtain additional rights, he must pass a second 40-hour training course. Regarding this, nothing is going to change. But according to the new draft, the requirement of having to work alongside a qualified police officer will not be necessary.
Pevkur has doubts about the draft amendment and told ERR that granting additional rights should entail thorough training and that less than 100 hundred hours training is not enough.
"We still have to look at it from the point of view that a police officer not only performs duties under the police but also acts on behalf of the state. When he has been given the uniform, people don't really distinguish between the police offices and an auxiliary police officer" Pevkur said.
He pointed out that the list of additional rights includes the right to stop cars or access databases, but according to the minister, they would also require thorough training. The police officer acquires the relevant knowledge, as well as the skills to use self-defense and special measures during one and a half years of training.
"Now we are basically giving people the right to use special measures with very little preparation after the interview. Even in an emergency situation, I am relatively skeptical about it," Pevkur said.
"No one can be recruited in an emergency situation for a job for which they have not been trained."
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Editor: Roberta Vaino