Acting IntMin Fifor: Romanian Police currently understaffed

Acting Interior Minister Mihai Fifor said on Wednesday that the Romanian Police is currently understaffed, specifying that an analysis will be conducted at each inspectorate. 

"There is no secret to anyone that the Romanian Police is understaffed at present. As much as I could this morning, I asked for data about the police employment, today I have a meeting with the police trade union, as well, I want to bring together at the table so that all the decisions we make are very well grounded. (...) on the one hand the parts so that all the decisions we make are very well-founded. (...) On the one hand, we know that they need to be done as a matter of urgency, things that had to be done yesterday, not today. I have the utmost regard for people who do their duty in this ministry. (...) We are preparing this urgent package of measures, I have two videoconferences and a videoconference with the prefects, because the prefects also have to get involved. Perhaps if in Olt [County] the coordinator of the decentralized services, who is the prefect, had done his job better, perhaps this is a link that would not have allowed to happen what happened in Caracal, but the measures will be communicated on time," Fifor said at the ministry. 

According to him, each police inspectorate will conduct an extremely thorough analysis of the way it works and whether there are vulnerabilities. 

"In each inspectorate we will have an extremely thorough analysis of how these inspectorates work and if there are vulnerabilities so we can solve them immediately. The conclusion is the same: nobody in the system who does not understand to do their duty by the book will remain, as there is no middle ground here, there is only one solution - enforcing the law. I remind you that there is a working group coordinated by Raed Arafat that will come with measures to change the legislation, including measures to have better 112 dispatching service. All these things will be presented in a report, in a press conference. There is also the possibility of setting up new structures, there is the possibility of giving additional duties to the structures that we have at the moment. Any systemic change that we will make, we will communicate it," Fifor added.