Translation from Lithuanian

Translation from Lithuanian Translation from Lithuanian Government of the Republic of Lithuania R E S O L U T I O N No. 1336 Guidelines of the Lithuanian Police Reform Vilnius, 3 December 1997 The Government of the Republic of Lithuania r e s o l v e s: To approve the Guidelines of the Lithuanian Police Reform (attached). Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius Minister of the Interior Vidmantas Þiemelis Approved by Resolution No. 1336 of 3 December 1997 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania Guidelines of the Lithuanian Police Reform General Provisions

1. A rapid development of our society, the development of democracy, creation of a state ruled by law, a complicated criminogenic situation - all that sets essentially new requirements for the police. Problems, which the police encounter today, can no longer be settled by means of partial changes and reorganization. There is a need in the a radical police reform which could fundamentally change its organization and management, methods of its activity, its role in the society and relations with other elements of the law enforcement system.
2. In the present document the main guidelines of the police reform are drawn up, its long-term priority objectives are indicated. Necessity for the Police Reform
3. Presently the police reveals the crimes committed, however, no long-term programs of strengthening the law enforcement system and fight against crime have been adopted. Meanwhile it is possible to prevent the growth of criminality by carrying out intensive preventive work, cooperating with the public, eliminating the causes of crime and implementing long-term complex programmes which would provide for the preventive tasks and objectives of the police activities.
4. The current activities of the police does not satisfy the requirements of the society.
5. It is necessary to improve the management of the police, to organize its work better. The police inherited a bureaucratic and militarized system of management based on command and subordination rather than on the responsibility for a rational use of the allocations. It is necessary to stimulate the initiative and creativity of the police, as well as novelties of its activity.
6. According to the current system of the police management, the police is an organization too closed and not accountable to the local self-government and local inhabitants. In a democratic society the police can achieve its objectives only by closely cooperating with the public. The system of the accountability of the police for the results of its work to the local self-government and inhabitants must be created. Long-term Objectives of the Police Reform
7. The police of Lithuania shall satisfy the requirements of democratic European states, therefore, it is necessary: 7.1 to demilitarize it, so that it becomes an autonomously governed system receiving independent financing and being accountable for its activity to the Ministry of the Interior, the local self-government and inhabitants; 7.
8. to restructure it - to simplify its internal structure specifying the functions and structures of different kinds of police. The independent municipal police shall be created in three stages: in the first stage the accountability of territorial police commissariats to self-governments shall be introduced. Commanders of the police commissariats are appointed to office upon the coordination of their candidatures with self-governments. in the second stage functional and structural reorganization of the police shall be carried out - the uniformed and criminal police shall be created; in the third stage the independent municipal police shall be created on the basis of the uniformed police, with functions and structures of the republican and municipal police being separated.
9. The activity of the police shall become socially oriented - the police shall cooperate closely with the public, try to determine the needs and expectations of the latter. The police, first and foremost, shall have to be responsible for the security of the inhabitants, protection of their property rather than only fulfilling the requirements of the law and revealing crimes. Priority Trends of the Police Reform
10. The police must work according to specific programmes (both national and local), which should provide for what results have to be achieved within a year or a longer period of time. With that end in view it is necessary: 9.
11. to provide the police with modern technology and working facilities (according to the drawn up programme); 9.
12. to recruit the most suitable officials for the service, to create an effective incentive mechanism, to improve the system of training; 9.
13. in the field of preventive police work to look for new ways of cooperation between the police and the public. Factors Effecting the Course of the Reform and its Results
14. The police shall be part of the Lithuanian law enforcement system, therefore, the course and results of its reform shall depend on the course of the reform of the whole legal system.
15. The distribution and concentration of the police forces depend on the administrative-territorial division of the state, therefore, the formation of governing functions and the infrastructure in new administrative-territorial units shall influence the restructuring of the police.
16. The police is part of the society and can change with the change of the society itself. It shall be constantly analyzed what the society expects from the police. With that end in view the programme of perspective complex sociological investigations must be drawn up. Intellectual, financial resources, organizational work and psychological preparation is necessary to implement the police reform. New Approach to the Management of the Police
17. Up till the present time the police has been managed by old bureaucratic methods which do not stimulate creativity and novelties. It is necessary to reorganize the structure of the management of the police following scientific achievements and introducing modern administration methods which are applied in the public sector: clear objectives of each stage shall be established, corresponding resources shall be allocated and decentralized at the lowest stage. The independence of police offices should be coordinated with the accountability not only to the police itself but also to the public and local self-governments.
18. Police offices shall have independent budgets which are confirmed according to objective criteria (size of the population in the territory serviced, a criminological situation, degree of urbanization, area serviced), and shall freely dispose it. It is necessary to rationally utilize the staff, try to create jobs for freelance people in the places not covered by the police officers.
19. The police shall gradually be handed over a pre-trial investigation of crimes after the divisions of the preliminary investigation within the system of internal affairs have been reorganized.
20. It is necessary to create a new model of the management of the police - to balance governing functions (Ministry of the Interior, Department of Police, County Chief Police Commissariat, Police Commissariat, police-offices).
21. When forming a new model of the management of the police (establishing functions and modeling the structures), the geopolitical situation of Lithuania as well as the administrative-territorial division of the state should be taken into account.
22. It is purposeful to reorganize the management of the police in such a way that officers performing management functions should constitute 10-15 per cent of the police offices staff.
23. The function of centralized management in the activity of the police (supply, methodological work, organization of training, preparation of programmes, creation of accountability and control system) shall be coordinated with the functions of local governing through self-governments (planning of work, accountability and control on a local level).
24. It is necessary to decentralize the management of the police and accountability, to establish that the chief of a police institution shall be responsible for the whole activity of the police force in that territory. Disputes between the police and citizens should be settled juridically.
25. It is expedient to stipulate priority trends in the police activity on a national (state) scale leaving the right to the management of territorial police offices to supplement them.
26. The plan of interaction between the border police and territorial police offices during police operations and in extreme situations shall be prepared.
27. Particular objectives of local police offices shall be provided for - both for a year and several years ahead - which are submitted for discussion and approval to the Department of Police under the Ministry of the Interior (hereafter referred to as the Department of Police) and a local self-government. In order to adequately evaluate and control the situation, the criteria for evaluating the situation and the activities on the level of strategic management shall be established.
28. It is necessary to establish the norms of providing the police with premises, transport, equipment, uniforms and other means, to provide for the funds for these needs. Police Control and Accountability
29. Police offices shall report to the Department of Police and municipal institutions on the investigation of crimes and preventive work annually. Reports to the public are given at meetings with inhabitants and through the mass media.
30. The police reserve, supporters, public organizations or inhabitants could better acquaint the public with the work and problems of the police and encourage cooperation with it.
31. The activities of police offices shall not depend on the changing political situation in the state. It must be a depoliticized institution ensuring the security of Lithuanian citizens. Relations between the Police and the Public
32. The police, in carrying out its objectives and functions, shall contribute to the activities of the Lithuanian Crime Prevention Centre and other public and state institutions related to prevention of crime.
33. It is necessary to better inform the public about the police activities, problems, the criminogenic situation, to prepare and implement the programme of the transparency of the police activities according to which the public could obtain more comprehensive information about the activities of the police, express its opinion and evaluation, present proposals.
34. It is planned to create a system of examining complaints about the activities of the police, as well as conflicts between citizens and the police, the basis of which shall be the primary examination of the complaint or dispute by the police, and providing a citizen is not satisfied with the results of the examination, by special joint police and public commissions.
35. It is necessary to organize the evaluation of the criminal security (risk of victimization) within the whole of Lithuania and its certain regions, to find out the least secure objects, provide assistance to persons and local organizations guarding these objects and carrying out programmes for reducing criminal risk in every possible way.
36. It is necessary, in cooperation with public and state organizations, to create the system of providing assistance to victims of crimes, to establish a special support fund for crime victims, to establish legal mechanisms of compensating for actual damage done.
37. It is necessary to seek for various means of cooperation between the police and the public, to create an effective system of material and moral incentive for the persons who actively cooperate with the police.
38. Care shall be taken to ensure that the police officers should be able to cooperate with the public. The ability of an officer to cooperate with the public shall be evaluated through testing. An effective incentive system for the police officers, actively cooperating with the public, should be created.
39. It is expedient to sign a joint agreement between the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education and Science according to which the police should help educational institutions carry out preventive work among young people and school children on a large scale. New Approach to Police Training and Professional Skills
40. Training and development of the police staff shall be reorganized with the aim of preparing a universal police officer, the selection of the police officers for their office shall be improved. Following the basic training a police officer could continue his studies in higher schools only after he has worked with the police for 1-2 years, during the time of studies the basic salary received while in office could be paid.
41. The effectiveness of the police work depends on the qualification of officers, therefore, it is necessary to introduce qualification criteria for promoting officers.
42. With the aim to keep highly qualified officers in their posts the system of accumulative remuneration should be introduced so that the police officer who has worked on a contractual basis for five years could receive a single payment amounting to 25-30 per cent of the wages received during his five years in office. It is necessary to establish a fund to incite the distinguished officers for specific results achieved in their work.
43. The principle of rotation of officials should be introduced and applied to the commander of police offices (the Commander can stay in office no longer than for one four-year term, in exceptional cases for one more term, then by order transferred to another post of a corresponding level). For this purpose it is necessary to establish a housing fund of office flats, to provide for compensations paid to the officers who are transferred to another place of service.
44. It is necessary to improve the system of social guarantees of the police officers which would encourage certain persons to serve in the police. Police Activities and Provision for Technology and Information
45. With the aim of reorganizing the police work, improving its conditions, it is necessary to purchase new communication and information processing technologies, to develop and introduce a computerized data system which makes it possible to provide the officers of all different levels of the interior system with information and means of communication (according to a long-term programme drawn up), also to set up a standing team of scientists, analysts and practitioners which would study the latest scientific achievements in the sphere of improving the police technologies and would present recommendations concerning the possibilities of acquiring and introducing technical devises and technologies. International Cooperation of the Police
46. It is necessary to further develop international cooperation of the police - to strengthen official and unofficial relations, first, with the police of neighbouring and other countries, investigate international crimes and exchange scientific and practical experience. Legislation Regulating Police Activities
47. To improve the legislation of the police activities the following is necessary: 43.
48. to study valid legislation regulating the police activities, and to establish the procedure of changing them; 43.
49. to prepare a new draft law of the Republic of Lithuania on the police under the following title: the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Public Security; 43.
50. to improve the laws in force and draft new acts supplementing the laws which regulate the police activities and its interaction with other institutions of the legal system, as well as with non-governmental organizations. Organizational Aspects of the Police Reform
51. To ensure the success of the police reform, it is necessary to constantly: 44.
52. organize conferences, discussions and consider the results achieved (organizational aspects of the reform); 44.
53. explain to the public and the police officers the necessity of changes and their course, formulate intermediate objectives (psychological aspects of the reform).
54. In carrying out the police reform, working groups shall be formed to analyze certain problems and work out their solutions.
55. The police reform shall be carried out taking account of the experience of other countries in this sphere, foreign advisors shall also be invited.
56. Programme of Implementing the Guidelines of the Police Reform and the related documents shall be prepared by the Police Reform and Studies Center of the Ministry of the Interior. Individual programmes shall be prepared by different authorities of the Ministry of the Interiors, the Lithuanian Academy of Law, other scientific institutions and organizations. The Police Reform and Studies Center generalizes the conclusions and results obtained and presents proposals to the management of the Ministry of the Interior.
57. It is necessary to perform the international monitoring of the presented Programme of Implementing the Guidelines of the Police Reform.
58. The course of the Police Reform shall be discussed once a year by the College of the Ministry of the Interior. _________________