We all know the famous Latvian poet Rainis quote: "What changes, endures". The State Police of Latvia is no different with anything else in this regard. As the years go by, a new generation of the State Police of Latvia police officers have poured into the State Police of Latvia, with higher demands and also their ideas for improvements to be made. The society demands against the State Police of Latvia are also only growing - we want - faster, better quality, more.
The State Police of Latvia is part of Europe with a united view of ensuring security and a desire to maintain even closer relations with the society. And that's just legitimate, because for many modern crimes, national boundaries are lost. For example, a fraudster can sit on a Spanish beach and cheat “pensioner savings” from a Latvian pensioner's account. The State Police of Latvia therefore actively continues to exchange experience between other European countries, engaging in different projects and also seeking additional means to improve working conditions for employees, to introduce technologies to ensure faster and safer exchange of information between European law enforcement authorities.
Currently, the State Police of Latvia is participating in the implementation of 35 international projects. The total approved amount of funding is 18.7 million euro.
But 12 projects with a total funding of 10 million euro at the development or evaluation stage.
Sources of funding:
🔹 European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund (ERDF);
🔹 European Union Internal Security Fund;
🔹 European multi-sectoral platform against criminal threats (EMPACT);
🔹 European Structural and Investment Fund “European territorial Cooperation” (Interreg);
🔹 Norway grants, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway grants;
🔹 European Commission's “right of your side” programme;
🔹 the Nordic and Baltic Mobility Programme.
Many of you in the media stories will have seen State Police of Latvia stations a couple of years back who fell short of job safety standards no longer, let alone the well-being of the staff themselves in the workplace. This is also illustrated by the Ministry of the Interior polls conducted in 2023 in which it was the working environment conditions that were identified by our staff as the main drawback. Many of the police stations had outdated so far that they were no longer worth investing in.
The planned improvements to the working environment have been started hand in hand with the structural reform of the State Police of Latvia. The implementation of the structural reform started in further regions of Latvia, but concluded in the capital city Riga, which so far has five police stations instead of the usual eight Pierīga police stations – Pierīga North police station, Pierīga South police station and Pierīga East police station, as well as separate police stations in Jūrmala and Riga airport.
As a result, the Eastern Board was provided with a new building on E.B.Upīša ielā 21 A, Rīga, and the Pārdaugava Board – on Mūkusalas ielā 101, Rīga.
In addition, the Priekule and Iecava disaster management centres were opened last summer. These are just two of the 16 new disaster management centres that will be located in different cities in Latvia. Employees of both the State Police of Latvia and the State Fire and Rescue Service were deployed to the new buildings.
in 2024, changes are expected - in Ilūkste, Dagda, Kandava, Aizpute and Rūjiena. The rest of the disaster management centres, where the State Police of Latvia support points will also be located, are planned to be built in Līvāni, Salacgrīva and Viļāni.
Let us recall that the Internal Security Academy is an association set up by several institutions to achieve the common goal of preparing highly qualified specialists for work in law enforcement institutions in Latvia.
The study process is being implemented both by the University of Latvia, Rīga Stradiņš University, as well as by the State Police College, jointly utilizing the available infrastructure of all the abovementioned partners and involving the resources of academic staff of higher education institutions.
The development plans of this project envisage construction of a training landfill site and a new training building in the Ezermalas iela 8a and 10 building complex.
By mobilising ERDF funding, it is planned to commence in 2024 and complete in 2025 the construction of the sports stadium, which is intended to maintain physical conditioning, continuous improvement, arranging of physical norms and the performance of sports games of all kinds.
Support for the detection of economic crimes
in July 2023, the reconstruction of premises in the State Police of Latvia buildings on Stabu iela 89 and Bruņinieku iela 72B, Riga, where the State Police Economic Crime Enforcement Department, the Cybercrime Combating Department and the Forensics department are located.
The renovation also improved and expanded laboratory infrastructure, creating safe laboratory office zoning and work area. The expanded and upgraded office spaces, on the other hand, will allow employees to work more efficiently, promoting better and faster investigation and expertise of economic crimes.
