A string of new Criminal Investigations Department bureaus are to open in suburban and outlying areas of Athens next week, as a police plan to decentralize and boost crime-fighting swings into full operation.

The 28 new CID bureaus form the final pieces in a jigsaw of 96 plain-clothes police stations, the first 68 of which opened last November, whose inauguration was postponed due to the Olympics. The CID was centralized in 1996.

The stations will be staffed by a core of experienced officers currently serving in the central Athens CID offices, and — starting Wednesday — will have full responsibility for crime-fighting in their areas of jurisdiction.

Apart from the central districts of Galatsi, Papagou, Halkidona, Psychico and Filothei, most of the new bureaus will be in suburbs and outlying parts of town, as well as in coastal resorts such as Nea Makri, Anavyssos and Kalamos.