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Head of the Romanian Police, quaestor Bogdan Despescu on Friday submitted to PM Mihai Tudose the report on the controls undertaken and the measures instructed in the case of Eugen Stan, the police officer charged with paedophilia. Apart from Bucharest Police head Mihai Marius Voicu and his deputy Nicu Dragos Orlando promptly resigning office on Friday, the document released on the same day on the government's website states that 22 police officers (of whom two retired) have been referred to the General Prosecution Office that is to determine to what extent they are guilty of criminal conduct. Disciplinary investigation has been started for the 20 active police officers, as various breaches in building the sexual assault cases involving police officer Eugen Stan have been found with the competent Bucharest police precincts No. 18 and 22.
The police investigation into Stan's most recent sexual assault of January 5, 2018 was also riddled with flaws, as the on-site investigation was not properly coordinated and the images caught on camera in the block of apartments where the offence took place have not been checked in detail, thus nixing the possibility to collect biological evidence at the site, while other officers did a sloppy job, failing to monitor the site of the crime until the arrival of the investigation team.
The document also includes a "Plan of measures to improve the mechanism for the police officers' behavioral assessment and insight". The report cites the understaffing of the Romanian Police and massive departures from the system (over 11,300 between 2016 - 2017 alone), that have affected the human resources management system, so that some 30 percent of the management positions are currently vacant.
The measures proposed to address the issue include the filling of the managerial positions by contest, hiring outside experts, admission to police post-high school education and systematic action for getting to know the police staff hired from external sources and the students seeking to graduate as police officers.
The document admits that knowledge about the staff is currently at a basic level and is likely to affect the due identification of particular aspects that could influence the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the officers, noting that the specialized structures of the Ministry of the Interior tasked with acquiring insight into the personnel and the police officers' superiors need to cooperate tighter.
The report recommends also the submission of proposals to amend Law No. 360/2002 on the police officer's statute by introducing regulations on the institution's authorization to submit the police officer - with the latter's assent - to the assessment of behavior in simulations, as part of the job-filling procedure or if suspicions arise regarding the respective officer's integrity and professional probity.
The refusal to take the behavior test may result in the exclusion from the job-filling procedure or in putting on 'awaiting posting order' until the end of the disciplinary investigation / psychological assessment.
The police officer who did not take the simulation behavior test for reasons attributable to him shall be fired in 3 months after being put on awaiting posting orders.
Other proposals include in-house regulations for other cases that might occur, where the assessment procedure is mandatory, such as the start of a criminal or of a disciplinary investigation, a security incident, certain contraventions.
The role of the direct superiors is also due to increase as they are the persons with legal and moral authority who permanently interact with the staff under their orders, so as to identify abnormal, deviant behavior or behavior that does not comply with the status and profession of policeman.
A technical solution is suggested for creating a directory platform with all disciplinary / criminal and behavioral insighting procedures, a register with all complaints filed against a particular police officer and the procedures initiated against the latter, as well as the systematic reporting to the hierarchical superiors of the investigation progress and the measures instructed in the case.
AGERPRES .
