THE ROMANIAN POLICE

THE ROMANIAN POLICE: AN ACHIEVEMENT IN DEMOCRACY

By

Keith N. Haley
Professor of Criminal Justice and
Associate Vice President for Special Projects
Tiffin University

Theodora Ene
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Assistant Director, MBA Program
Tiffin University at the University of Bucharest

Article is copyrighted. All rights pertain.

If you go by the Piazza Universitatea in downtown Bucharest at 6:30 in the morning you are likely to see a police cruiser facing the National Theater of Romania with two officers inside sipping coffee, waiting for their shift change. They are probably hoping not to get a late call, like all police waiting to get off-duty. But beyond this ordinary scene, vast differences exist between the police of Romania and law enforcement in the United States.

The Romanian Police are a national police system within the Ministry of the Interior with officers and units deployed throughout the nation. The head of the Romanian police is the General Inspectorate who reports to the Minister of the Interior. Members of the police leadership are graduates of the Romanian Police Academy, a free-standing four-year academic unit affiliated with the University of Bucharest and other academic institutions. All graduates possess a baccalaureate degree in law that prepares them for serving as a commissioned officer in the police service and with the credential to practice law should they choose to do so.

To say that the Romanian Police are in a state of transition is to truly understate the case. Barely more than a decade ago the Romanian people were subject to the absolute control of one of the 20th Century's most brutal dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu. As is always the case for dictators, the police and its secret branches were the major means of clamping down on any display or personal support of democratic activity. If Romanians may still be a little reluctant to express their views in public, consider this. The Securitate, the secret arm of the Romanian Police, and its several divisions, had compiled over 700,000 dossiers on Romanian citizens from all walks of life. This is in a nation of 21 million people. It paid citizens a few dollars a month to spy on their friends and neighbors, detailing what teachers said in the classrooms, what people listened to on the radio, and what their neighbors and co-workers said against the Communist regime. This secret police organization also took handwriting samples from thousands within the population and supervised the registration of all typewriters and copy machines. The police even set up TV monitors to spy on citizens at many of the street corners in central Bucharest.

A revolution eventually ensued and on Christmas Day in 1989, the dictator and his wife Elena were tried and executed. Freedom was reborn and is now awash in Romania. President George Bush said in Bucharest on November 23, 2002, "Since those days of liberation, Romania has made an historic journey. Instead of hatred, you have chosen tolerance. Instead of destructive rivalry with your neighbors, you have chosen reconciliation. Instead of state control, you have chosen free markets and rule of law. And instead of dictatorship, you have built a proud and working democracy."

Now the police operate within a democratic society and it means that old totalitarian tactics had to be abandoned. This transformation has not been easy since many of the former Securitate staff and police officials from the old regime still operate within the Romanian Police organization and the Ministry of the Interior as well as the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). But monumental progress has been achieved and more is to be accomplished. Democracy now lives in the hearts and minds of the beat police officer on a late night shift , the corrections officer on a prison range, and the judge in a courtroom.

One of the major reform projects was to demilitarize and democratize the police and prison systems. Because Romania has already been approved to enter NATO and plans on being accepted into the European Union in 2007, many of the steps toward demilitarization and democratization are in line with standards handed down by both of these organizations. Policies have been developed, for example, to guide under what conditions informants can be used, i.e corruption cases; money laundering; drug and human trafficking; organized crime; Internet crimes; and cross-border crimes. These conditions are a substantial restriction on the use of informants as contrasted to their use under the Communist regime and during the several years following the downfall of Ceausescu. New laws also require that the police ensure the safety of witnesses, informants, victims of crime, and magistrates and their families.

Use of deadly force policies have been developed within the Romanian police system that restrict the use of lethal force against only those who threaten life or serious bodily injury. Neither is a warning shot any longer permitted. Reports are now required for any use of force with weapons of any kind, and if someone is injured or killed by the police, an investigation is conducted and the necessary reports are completed.

Private detectives and security officers are no longer permitted to operate without police oversight. Contract security companies, detective businesses, and personal bodyguard companies are now authorized and controlled by the police. Finally, a new law created a National Police Officer organization, a professional nonprofit association that will protect police officers' rights. The organization has to be consulted when any new mandatory regulations are drafted that affect the police.

One change in education for the police and other justice officials has been established as a result of cooperation between Tiffin University (TU), the University of Bucharest, and the United States Agency for International Development. TU helped the University of Bucharest start a Master of Community Justice Administration (MCJA) degree program that has seen approximately 70 Romanian police, court, and corrections professionals from all hierarchical levels complete the program over the past four years. Included in the list of graduates is one of Romania's 9 Supreme Court Justices. Your authors were major contributors to this project and taught many classes at the University of Bucharest. In referring to Tiffin University's help in setting up the MCJA program, U.S Ambassador to Romania Michael Guest said, "You can be proud that the program they developed is training up the next generation of leaders in Romania to promote greater appreciation for the rule of law."

With all of the colossal structural changes and far-reaching mandates to improve the police, some mundane but nevertheless important changes have also transpired that affect the work life and effectiveness of the police. While some Romanian citizens criticized the introduction of a roomier, more expensive Volkswagen police cruiser to replace the Romanian made but smaller Dacia automobile, the officers now have a faster, more maneuverable, and larger police cruiser to spend their tour of duty in. Even better, more gasoline is available and the police can actually engage in some motor patrol activity. The Romanian police have also received some modest pay increases.

With their work shift almost over, the officers in the police cruiser at Piazza Universitatea may just have to do a little peacekeeping as they notice some children outside the MacDonald's restaurant becoming a little too aggressive in asking citizens for money. The children are street beggars and seldom are they any real problem or are there many of them, but today they are pushing their luck. Late or not, the officers just may give them a talking to.