Sutaj Estok: Stabilising Police and Changing Crisis Management Main Priorities

Bratislava, January 3 (TASR) - Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) has said in a New Year interview for TASR that he wants to focus on stabilising the Police Corps and changing crisis management this year, adding that another priority is that the law should apply to everyone. The minister called his first steps after assuming office "relatively dynamic". "I think that we needed to put the ministry in order first, not only the Police Corps, but the whole ministry as such. "We're auditing the condition in which the ministry finds itself, we're gradually pulling skeletons out of cupboards and, naturally, we'll address the problems that await us," he said. Sutaj Estok views under-staffing of the Police Corps as a long-term problem. "If we want to make sure that its inhabitants have a safe Slovakia, we need more police officers for that," he said. He doesn't expect any big increases in salaries with regards to the condition of public finances. Nevertheless, he wants to improve the material and technical equipment of the Police Corps. "Police officers lack basic things, such as equipment, weapons, they don't even have socks," he noted. Sutaj Estok would also like to regain a feeling of respect and dignity in regard to police officers, as they "haven't heard anything good from either state representatives or the public over the past crisis years". The area of crisis management is one of the main new year goals for Sutaj Estok. "We want to work on a major change in crisis management, as the state has always failed over the past three and a half years. Only local governments and volunteers were available to provide a substitute for state aid," said the minister. ko/df