Currently, the State Police is lacking several hundred police officers necessary for traffic safety control, but the future looks better as the number of future law enforcement personnel has increased, stated Juris Jančevskis, Deputy Chief of the Main Road Police Department of the State Police, Head of the Response Department, at a meeting of the Road Safety Council on Thursday.
According to experts, despite the implementation of digital solutions, driver behavior could change simply due to the presence of police crews on the streets.
According to Jančevskis, the State Police is open to new employees, and the number of young people entering the State Police College has increased. Accordingly, the police are awaiting graduates to fill vacancies.
"We do not hide that we are lacking these personnel. Currently, we have almost 1300 responding police officers and about 500 vacancies," said Jančevskis. The greatest shortage of law enforcement personnel is observed in the capital.
"In any case, we observe a trend that interest in working in the police is growing, considering the number of those entering the college," he added.
As reported, this year the statistics on road fatalities are poor, and it may be necessary to consider introducing harsher penalties, stated Minister of Transport Aitis Švinka at a meeting of the Road Safety Council on Thursday.
This year, 108 people have died in accidents, and the figures for the entire previous year have already been exceeded.
