Polish police fight to rescue reputation
Polish police fight to rescue reputation
By Timothy Heritage
WARSAW (Reuter): Poland's police force, its hands already full fighting a surge in violent crime, now faces a corruption scandal that threatens to shatter public confidence in its work.
The scandal broke last month when the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza alleged that officers in the western city of Poznan took bribes and had dubious links with local businessmen.
Poland's police chief has offered to resign. But confirmation of irregularities in Poznan by an independent inquiry and a spate of allegations of police wrongdoing elsewhere suggests more heads could roll.
"If any of the serious charges are confirmed, the chiefs of the main (central) police headquarters should be fired and the interior minister should consider his responsibility," a group of five opposition right-wing parties said in a statement.
To make matters worse, figures show crime is continuing to rise. About 1,100 murders were committed in Poland in 1993, twice as many in 1989 -- the year communist rule ended.
Grisly crime stories, such as the discovery of two headless corpses in the River Vistula, are often splashed across the newspapers.
An opinion poll suggested public confidence in the police was on the wane when 67 percent of those questioned believed Poland was no longer a safe country.
"Things are getting ever more dangerous on the streets of our towns and cities," the Polish news agency PAP quoted Interior Minister Andrzej Milczanowski as telling a police conference. Confirmation of corruption in the police would be a serious blow to the force's morale and public confidence.
Gazeta Wyborcza correspondent Piotr Najsztub and Poznan Radio reporter Maciej Gorzelinski gathered evidence after Gorzelinski received anonymous tip-offs describing wrongdoings in the local police.
Determined to find out more, they conducted a series of interviews with retired and active officers who finally decided to break their code of silence.
Gazeta Wyborcza alleged that, in a web of dubious contacts with local businessmen, some police officers had received gifts such as computers, refrigerators and washing machines.
In return, it said they had ignored some tax fraud and smuggling offenses. A "sponsoring" scheme, under which local businessmen provided the Poznan police with equipment to help it with cash problems, had been badly abused, it added.
In one case, Gazeta Wyborcza said no charges were pressed against a man linked with an illegal alcohol bottling operation because he was one of the "sponsors".
In another, the newspaper quoted witnesses as saying sponsors laid on alcohol for police and offered the services of women from an escort agency at a drunken party.
Poznan police chief Kazimierz Knoff said that although some officers were punished for offenses in 1993, he had no evidence that any senior officials were involved in corruption.
Interior Ministry spokesman Piotr Szczypinski said he could not comment in detail until the allegations were investigated.
"The press is always prone to exaggeration. Corruption occurs everywhere in the world and one should see the problems in the right perspective, not demonise them," he said.
He made it clear the allegations were a blow to the image of the police. "Such accusations have a negative and destructive effect," he said.
An Interior Ministry commission set up to investigate the Poznan police said it had found problems.
Prosecutors from the southwestern city of Katowice, a safe distance from the reaches of interested parties, were chosen to start a separate investigation and by mid-March reported 22 irregularities.
These included police turning a blind eye to certain crimes, helping people avoid punishment, dubious links with cigarette smuggling and illegal alcohol production and using force against some businessmen.
The first casualty of the scandal was Poland's police chief, Zenon Smolarek, who used to be chief of police in Poznan and was mentioned in the Gazeta Wyborcza report.
He has offered his resignation, saying his reputation would be tarnished whether or not he had done anything wrong.
"Even if I washed 10 times at the dry cleaner's, some speck of dirt would remain," he told a parliamentary commission.
Other casualties could follow when the Katowice prosecutors go to Poznan for further investigations. The investigators have indicated that some could face formal charges.
Public confidence has clearly already been dented. An opinion survey in March found that 35 percent of those polled believed misdeeds such as those the Poznan force are accused of are committed "often" or "quite often" by the police.