A reform in Lithuania’s police commissariats has prompted many officers to quit their jobs. Now, to make up for the shortfall, police stations are manning their crews with volunteers.
This summer, a reform was implemented in the police commissariats of the Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys, and Šiauliai districts, during which the so-called response board was set up after several units were abolished.
The expressed aim of the reform was to eliminate function overlaps, increase the versatility of officers, and improve the quality of services to the public. The authorities have previously said that, after the reform, police crews arriving at minor incidents should be able to assess the circumstances of the incident, formally record the incident, and resolve the dispute or problem from start to finish, without the need for additional police back-up.
The Vilnius County Chief Police Commissariat (AVPK) completed the reform on June 1. According to reports, around 60 police officers quit following the creation of the response board.
Mindaugas Stravinskas, the interim chief of the Vilnius AVPK, has confirmed that even more officers have left their jobs since then. The Commissariat is currently more than 20 percent understaffed, according to him, or over 400 police officers short. The shortage of officers in the Vilnius APVK Response Board exceeds 30 percent, with about 100 people missing.
According to the head of the Lithuanian Police Trade Union (LPPS), Roma Katinienė, the union warned police leaders that the Regional Chief Police Commissariats, especially those in Vilnius and Kaunas, could face a shortage of officers and a significantly increased workload after the reform.
Now, she said, in an attempt to bridge the shortfall of officers, commissariats replace the second police officer in a crew with a civilian volunteer assistant, a so-called police supporter, or a volunteer of the Riflemen’s Union. This is actively practised in Vilnius county.
“I think we need to talk about it loudly before anything serious goes wrong,” Katinienė tells LRT.lt, adding that civilians can be harmed while responding to calls they are not trained to handle.
According to Stravinskas, the police supporter is usually the third member of the crew that includes two officers. However, he admits, it does happen that sometimes they get paired with only one policeman or policewoman.
The assistance of riflemen – better-trained volunteers of the paramilitary Riflemen’s Union – is requested in certain cases, Stravinskas says, for example, when searching for missing persons or carrying out control measures in certain areas of the city.
He acknowledges that the workload for the remaining police officers has increased considerably after the reform, with some officers leaving the police station.
With around 25 percent of the officers having left the station, it will take time to replace them, the chief of Vilnius AVPK says.
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