Katelin Predoyu accused the heads of public order protection structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of “negligence on the part of personnel, poor professional training, lack of combativeness and proactivity during the performance of missions and duties, deficiencies at the management level.” and asked them for a “new attitude towards the profession”.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that Predoyu convened a video conference meeting in which representatives of the Romanian police, gendarmerie, border police, the General Inspectorate for Immigration, the General Directorate of Operational Management, the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption, the General Directorate of Internal Security, the National Drug Enforcement Agency, National Human Trafficking Agency.

Predoi’s move comes amid recent scandals involving Romania’s police force, which is headed (since May 2021) by Inspector General Benone Matei under the direct supervision of Quaestor Bohdan Despescu.

“I am asking for a new attitude to the profession, to work”

According to the MAI, Katalin Predoyu mentioned negligence on the part of the staff, low professional training, lack of combativeness and proactivity during the execution of missions and duties, shortcomings at the management level.

“I am asking you for a new attitude to the profession, to work, to the citizen. More participation is needed. I urge you to restore the status you deserve in the community. Any shortage is not an excuse for not fulfilling one’s duty to the citizens,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Cătălin Predoiu asked the heads of the MAI structures to “pay maximum attention to complying with the priorities of actions for the next period”: preventing and fighting drug and human trafficking, strengthening the fight against organized crime, fighting tax evasion and smuggling, increasing the level of safety on public roads.

According to the quoted source, he drew attention to “the need to strengthen the professional training of the employees of the Ministry of Interior at all levels, with an emphasis on those who work in the operational field, recently hired or with a few years of experience.”

Some things can be done on the spot, others take more time

“I know that there are many things that need to be fixed or improved in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We are already acting in several directions. I assure the citizens that I have mobilized the assets of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to achieve priorities and build a new attitude to work and to the citizen. Some things can be done on the spot, others take more time. But I demanded, with all the legitimacy of the position, immediate actions and improvement of the quality of professional activity in all structures of the Ministry of Interior. I will use all the administrative levers and legal powers I have to achieve these goals,” the Minister of Internal Affairs also stated.

In the press release sent to the MAI, it is also noted that the State Secretary Bohdan Despescu “for his part demanded an increase in the degree of mobilization of all operational personnel and additional attention to citizen reports, demanding a greater demand from the chiefs to identify employees with behavioral problems who do not respect the strictness of the police profession “.

He asked “the heads of the central and district structures to constantly analyze how to carry out the missions, to check the effectiveness of the adopted measures and introduce new ones whenever necessary, the ultimate goal is to increase the degree of citizen’s security”.

On Tuesday in Caracal, a policeman drunk and under the influence of drugs hit a woman with his car. Sources at the court told HotNews.co that the police officer, who works for the Constanța traffic police, had consumed marijuana and amphetamines, as well as alcohol, and was in the car with two other young men, students of the Vasile Lascăr School of Police Officers in Campina, and also a 24-year-old woman, quoted sources said. Moreover, after the accident, the driver claimed that a 24-year-old woman was driving.

The accident in Caracal is the latest in a series of accidents caused by drunk and/or drugged drivers that have shocked public opinion and renewed debates about the legality of drug trade and consumption.

The first accident in this series was the fault of Vlad Pasku, a 19-year-old boy who used several types of drugs and drove his car into a group of eight young people who were walking on the side of the road in May. 2. Roberta Maryna Dragomir (20 years old) and Sebastian Andrei Olariu (21 years old), both students, died on the spot. Three more young people were injured.

The tragedy of May 2 plunged the Romanian police into a new scandal, which is headed (from May 2021) by Inspector General Benone Matei under the direct supervision of Quaestor Bohdan Despescu, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior.

The accident revealed shocking details. Vlada Paska was stopped by the police twice – the day before the tragedy, on the filter, and the same night. He was allowed to leave the police station without a drug test, even though drugs were found in his car and the car did not have valid RCA insurance. Less than an hour later, Vlad Pasku caused an accident.

On Sunday, a drunk driver who also took psychoactive substances injured two women, one of whom died, and crashed five cars in the town of Popesti-Leordeni. The man was the head of the Bucharest brigade against organized crime, G4Media reported, which wrote that he was reserve colonel Konstantin Peun.