Basic police training system in Poland

Abstract

In Poland, the popularity of the police, the border guards, and the Polish armed forces after the political changes is very high and unbroken. The majority of the population has confidence in the police and sees them as an organization that protects the safety of citizens and serves them. During the decades of communism, like all police in the Eastern Bloc, the law enforcement operated under party’s full control and its main task was to protect the socialist state order. Its operation was permeated by total political influence. During this period,
maintaining the power of the party instead of serving the citizens was one of the main tasks of the Polish police. During the decades of communism, police officers brutally acted against people who were not satisfied with the political system and criticized it. For example, in December 1970 there were 18 victims after the police used firearms and live ammunition in Gdynia demonstration. Or also the system critic Roman Catholic priest Jerzy Popieluszko was murdered by some policemen in 1984. After the change of regime, this police force had
to be made up of a law enforcement agency according to the European standard, serving and protecting the citizens. It has to be well-functioning, transparent and accountable. It seems to me that this aim has been fully achieved by our Polish friends.