Sutaj Estok: Situation in Police Stabilised, Recruitment Process Needs Change

Bratislava, January 2 (TASR) - The situation in the Police Corps in connection with police officers leaving the police has been stabilised, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) stated in an interview with TASR, adding that the ministry plans to reverse the negative trend in the number of police officers and also wants to change some rules of the recruitment process. "The situation stabilised in September when virtually all those who wanted to take advantage of the 14.5-percent pension indexation had a deadline to file their retirement by September, so we had 99 percent of the number of retirements in September," said the minister, adding that there are conditions in the recruitment process that need to be adjusted, such as the quality of eyesight or various allergies. The interior minister believes that the personnel problems in the police won't go beyond the point where the army would have to come to its aid. However, he said that he's discussing various possibilities of cooperation with the Defence Ministry. "For me, the absolute priority in the next year is to kick-start the inflow of new people into the Police Corps, so that we can simply resolve the lack of police officers we've been dealing with for ten years and which has worsened in the last three and a half years," stressed Sutaj Estok. am/mcs