Police of the Czech Republic

Police of the Czech Republic (Czech: "Policie České republiky") is the national law enforcement agency of the Czech Republic. It was established on 15 July 1991 under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior. The agency is tasked with protecting citizens, property and public order and as of 2015, there were around 40,500 employees. Czech state police cooperates with municipal police departments, which are present in local municipalities.
History.
The Police of the Czech Republic took over land management after the communist SNB in the Czech Republic with the exception of military police (provosts) who are part of the army. Members were recruited from the former communist SNB (National Security Corps), after passing a vetting "democratic" commission established after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 to eliminate from the police force communist ideologues and agents of the secret police. A similar procedure was also undertaken in the then-Slovak Republic. Some police officers were employed by a small federal police force, whose mandate expired on 31 December 1992.
Jurisdiction and organisation.
The Police of the Czech Republic has general jurisdiction in the investigation of misdemeanors and crimes. Its proceedings are overseen by an independent prosecutor, who can bring charges in criminal matters. It does not have jurisdiction in fields falling within the competence of other specialized bodies, such as the Customs service, military police, judicial guard or the Secret service. PČR is the main investigative body of the Ministry of the Interior. It should not be confused with the municipal police, which may be established by a municipality and which supervises public order and road safety; municipal police also have jurisdiction only over misdemeanours, and in criminal investigations may serve only in a supportive role for the state police.
The Police of the Czech Republic is responsible for search and rescue operations and on this behalf cooperates with Mountain Rescue Service of the Czech Republic that is highly professional rescue agency.
Some crimes (such as terrorism) are being solved in co-operation with intelligence agencies such as BIS or ÚZSI.
On-duty officers are obliged to carry service weapons depending on the nature of their work (administrative vs. field work) or by their superior executive officer ordinance.
Regardless of being assigned to nationwide or regional units all police officers while on or off-duty have right (and obligation) to act if the crime or serious offense is happening and life, health or property may be in imminent danger. Civilian employees of police are obliged to act only while on-duty. Generally police officers are not allowed to carry service weapons while off-duty if not approved by regional or unit police chief, which is on condition that "their life maybe in serious immediate danger". If police officer still wants to carry weapon off-duty he/she has to use their personal handgun like any other armed citizen. Off-duty officer can use his personal weapon when acting as police officer (which makes him on-duty).
Regional jurisdiction.
There are 14 regional headquarters, with jurisdictions covering the regions of the Czech Republic.
Police officers serving under regional HQs are usually organized in the following sections:
Equipment.
As of 2011, the Police of the Czech Republic employs about 41,000 officers, with a ratio of about 45 officers per 10,000 population. Of these, about 3,500 are traffic-police officers.
Transport.
Watercraft.
2 motorboats Marine 15Y on the Elbe river in Ústí nad Labem Region, since 2006. Since 2016, a new cabin boat was delivered.
At Slapy Reservoir in the Vltava river, the 15 years old police boat was replace in 2015 with 2 new boats. In 2015, 16 new police boats (6× cabin boats Tinnsilver 870-Cabin and 10× low-draft boats Alunautic LC 7,50) were delivered, 5 of them to Central Bohemian Region (3 cabin boats and 2 low-draft boats). Other of the police boats were delivered to Orlík Reservoir on the Vltava, to Elbe in Nymburk, and other to South Bohemian Region, Hradec Králové Region and Pardubice Region. River departments of police are in Slapy Reservoir and Prague on the Vltava and in Ústí nad Labem and Nymburk on the Elbe, other boats are used by local police departments on Lipno Reservoir, Orlík Reservoir, Nové Mlýny Reservoir and others.
The Prague river department of the police had in 2004 two cabin boats MB 075 produced in GDR, and planned to replace their Russian ZiL engines with Volvo Penta engines. Other watercraft was 5-meter ship Mayer with a Volvo Penta engine, 6-meter SeeStar Patrol boat with Volvo Penta engine, 4-meter Ryds 500 GTS boat, two rubber boats: 5-meter Bombard with Mercury 25 engine and 4-meter Quick Silver with Johnson 10 engine. In Prague, also the Municipal Police has their watercraft.
Firearms.
The following firearms are used by the Police of the Czech Republic: