Digitization putting officers back into neighborhoods
With the aim of eventually freeing up thousands of officers for policing duties, the Citizen Protection Ministry is making it a priority to digitize a series of bureaucratic services available to the public at local precincts.
The effort has been under way for about two years, but due to the pandemic, the digital transformation of the police has been left behind. However, the new minister, Takis Theodorikakos, has made it clear that moving officers from the so-called “sidelines” is one of the main goals of his policy.
After meeting on Wednesday with Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, he vowed that “in about three weeks we will give a specific timetable for the changes.”
“Police officers will get up from the desk to go to the neighborhoods,” he said.
According to estimates, some 1,000 uniformed personnel do not perform police duties on a daily basis because they are need for bureaucratic duties.
