“We are working with a plan to reduce crime and delinquency even more,” emphasized the Minister of Citizen Protection.
THE Minister of Citizen Protection Takis Theodorikakos was hosted on SKAI’s morning news show “Kalimera”. Speaking to Dimitris Oikonomou and journalists Lina Kleitou and Vangelis Papadimitriou, it was mentioned, on the occasion of the episode in Patisia and to Agios Anargyros, in the effective response of the Police, the bill for the upgrading of Police training, in the reduction of crime, in the increase of the police presence in the neighborhoods and in the contribution of EL.AS to the fire fronts. Commentary on political developments and the possibility of early elections were not missing from the agenda of the debate.
The main points of the interview of the Minister of Citizen Protection Takis Theodorikakos:
We all fight together for the safety of citizens
We are one family and we all fight together for the safety of citizens and the fight against crime and extreme and aggressive violent behavior. The police on Saturday night acted with absolute professionalism and self-sacrifice in the incident in Patisia, neutralizing a dangerous criminal. The three people who have been killed were members of the Albanian mafia and they actually fought each other because apparently he had broken the deal in the cocaine trade.
30% more number of police officers operating
The police are doing their job right. It works effectively and protects citizens. For this reason, today one can check and see what we have done all this time to strengthen citizens’ sense of security. The reality is that every day in Attica 2,500 police officers are out on the streets. I am not referring to the police officers who are inside the police stations. I am referring to the Police teams that are on the streets and are operating whether they are DIAS or OPKE.
The number is at least 30% higher than the previous period outside. You know the incident on Saturday found me when I was Saturday night at the Police Station of Agios Panteleimon, a difficult neighborhood of Athens where 88 police officers now operate every day. You will see the new overall results very soon.
Upgrading police training
All this year, the 3,500 men of the DIAS team underwent retraining after the well-known incident in October in Perama, while today the bill for police training and its upgrading is submitted for consultation and will be voted on in the summer. With this, the School of Officers becomes a higher school, similar and equivalent to the School of Evelpids, but also the whole of Police Schools is upgraded. The level of studies is upgraded, the conditions for the teachers who teach in these schools are upgraded and the entire study framework is advanced to European standards.
Extremely dangerous profession
The police profession, which is out there fighting to protect citizens, has a very high level of risk, it is a dangerous profession. It is the most dangerous profession. Wasn’t what our two police officers did yesterday dangerous? They risked their lives, saved people, saved themselves from their act to be able to shoot the criminal. Therefore, our government is looking for ways to see how it can advance the request of police officers to recognize their profession as dangerous, because this has a number of financial implications that we are looking at to see how we can respond.
Reducing crime
First of all, there is worldwide and certainly in Europe an explosion of extreme and violent behavior after the end of the pandemic. Just yesterday you saw in a very peaceful country, in Denmark, a bloodbath from a man, who was shooting inside a shopping mall. So there are behaviors like that, that’s the reality. I will not adopt the Far West characterization for Greece. These are not everyday phenomena, they are very specific cases and I will fully share with you the satisfaction that the police acted as they did and the dead are criminals. Dead are the people who were drug dealers, they were the ones who were preparing to kill police officers and civilians. But as far as delinquency and criminality are concerned, the low and medium ones that may threaten the average Greek household. Thefts, robberies, burglaries, home invasions, these show a decrease of around 30% compared to the time before the quarantine and compared to what was valid during the years of the previous government. These are indisputable facts and realities. We fight and work with a plan to further reduce crime and delinquency.
Elections: “What the householder knows, the whole world does not know”
For the time of the elections, the only competent person to decide is the Prime Minister of the country, or as I like to say gentlemen, what the householder knows, the whole world does not know. I believe that every Minister has the obligation to fulfill the mission assigned to him by the Prime Minister and to our responsibility towards the Greek people to carry out our work properly. Personally, the plan that I have discussed with the Prime Minister and which concerns the work of our Ministry reaches until next June. It is a plan for about eleven months, it includes legislative work, it includes the implementation of the changes we are making to the Police to make it friendlier towards citizens and more effective against crime. Don’t give a pre-election character to the communication with the citizens. I believe that it is the duty of the politician to be close to the citizens, to discuss, to be in the society, to catch the pulse of the society, to listen to the problems.
The Police are present at the fire fronts
In all cases where fires occur, the Greek Police is or assists in the work of the fire brigade by contributing to the evacuation of houses, so such have been ordered for the safety of citizens, for traffic regulations in order to facilitate the movement of vehicles and to protect people’s property when they have left their home. I have to tell you that yesterday all night hundreds of policemen were there on all fronts they have done an excellent job. This is the image of the Greek Police, an image of efficiency and professionalism, next to the citizen.
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