The country is one of the highest levels of human organization. Especially the most democratic ones. The first and most important aim of a country is to serve the people and provide a decent social life. This means that a country is the compilation of people’s will to organize the institution that will protect and serve them.
The Slovenian National Police Force is created regarding Western standards. Its main aim is to protect people watching for law enforcement. Slovenian Police operates at three levels: local, general, and regional. It has employed 6,928 officers and owns 2,209 car units.
In simple words, it protects people as well as observes whether they obey laws. Slovenian police forces are ones with such a purpose. It was created on the Western model, and it was formed in 1991 when Slovenia gained independence. For tourists, this information is important to know because sometimes it happens when we should contact the police. Hopefully, just for the purpose of the security check!
Local Civilian Police
Police in Slovenia is officially called “The Slovenian National Police Force”. Its duty is to watch for law enforcement. Slovenian police is a structure of the Slovenian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The last one is responsible for public security, internal administrative affairs, and migration in Slovenia, except police forces.
Slovenian National Police force operates at on three levels: local, general, and regional. Its headquarters are in Ljubljana (address – Generalna policijska uprava, Štefanova 2, 1501). For the matter of convenience, the police force is divided into administrative units. They are called directorates. There are eight of them and they are located in the biggest cities: Celje, Koper, Kranj, Ljubljana, Maribor, Murska Sobota, Nova Gorica, and Novo Mesto.
In general, there are 111 police stations in Slovenia. Logically, they come under the jurisdiction of the General Director of the Police. As for 2016, they had employed 8,517 officers. The responsible minister is Aleš Hojs, the minister of Interior Affairs. The agency executive is Anton Travner, Director General of the police.
Slovenian police build international experience as well. For instance, their program includes training with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and involvement in Albania and Kosovo with the Multinational Advisory Police Element.
Here is the official website www.policija.si/eng/
Work Environment
Usually, a police officer has extremely diverse tasks. Moreover, their schedule is not stable. For instance, it may be four-day 10-hour weeks or constant 12-hour, one-day off, 10-hour, one-day off rotations. Everything depends on the current situation in a municipality. Therefore, this job is not for everybody. Additionally, if to take into consideration the fact that every police officer has to have an excellent physical state of the body, the circle of potential candidates is shrinking.
Furthermore, due to the hard-working conditions, police forces went on limited-strike in mid-November 2015. The protests ended in 2016, after six months. At that time, both the Slovenian National Police Force and the Slovenian Ministry of Internal Affairs reached an agreement on raising police salaries and certain benefits. Thus, this job became even more prestigious in Slovenia. Along with that, the competition for a single vacancy grew even stronger.
The patrol officer works only in pairs, in order to provide more safety. The other tasks may include horse-mounted units, detective specializations, specialized tactics unit, and traffic enforcement unit. However, all these can be given to an officer only after two years spent on patrol.
A police officer has a right to apply for a rank rise, but not more often than once in three years. There are two ways how to find out the rank of an officer: by special indicator signs called “insignias”. Police officers should wear them on a jacket or on shoulders. The insignias for regular officers have from one up to four stars. They are dark blue and a light-blue trim all-round. Higher ranking officers have the same ones, 1-4 stars insignias but with golden trim. Command staff insignias are another, they have a Triglav-logo on them, with the same 1-4 stars. The two highest ranks are the deputy general director and the general director himself. Their insignias also have golden olive leaves. The general rule is the more golden color on an officer’s insignias, the higher officer is standing in the front of you.
Police Equipment and Stuff
As for 2016, the police force in Slovenia employed 6,928 officers. This means that the ratio per population became 34.25 officers per 10,000 citizens. Besides regular officers, it was employed 968 detectives and 87 members of the Slovenian Police Special Unit.
Now, the stuff is using 2,209 police vehicles and 137 motorbikes. The Slovenian Police Forces have Citroën Jumper, Ford Focus, Volkswagen Transporter, Volkswagen Touareg, Škoda Superb, and Renault Master. They are the most popular cars in the Slovenian police. To mention, most of the cars are brands from the second neighbor countries. For example, Citroën and Renault from France, Volkswagen from Germany, Škoda from the Czech Republic.
The majority of patrol cars are the newest model of Škoda Octavia, which was bought in 2016 and 2017. At that time, they replaced the old Opel Astra and Škoda Octavia.
The interesting fact that the Slovenian police introduced newly designed fluorescent-yellow reflective markings to increase visibility at night and poor weather conditions in 2015. In 2016, they ordered 328 new vehicles featuring 4×4 to specialized patrol unmarked cars, which were a new deal at that time. In 2018, the Slovenian Police Forces got 21 SUVs Seat Ateca.
Moreover, police forces use non-land vehicles as well. They include 6 boats, as well as 7 helicopters. The helicopters are Agusta Bell 206 (originally was created for the United States Army Forces), Agusta Bell 212, Agusta Bell 412, AgustaWestland AW109, AgustaWestland AW169. The last two are light-weight copters for border control. All these helicopters are made in Italy, the neighboring country of Slovenia. The only one that is out of Italy is Eurocopter EC 135, specialized in Schengen Area Border Control.
The Slovenian Police Forces are using three motorbikes: Honda Deauville, Yamaha FJR1300AP, and BMW R1150RT. The police versions were created intentionally more powered especially for the purposes of the police job.
To mention about arms, the Slovenian Police Forces use Beretta 92, Beretta 8000 (created in Italy as well), Glock 19 (the Austrian pistol, created in Austria for Austrian military forces), Heckler & Koch MP5 (the well-known German submachine gun), Heckler & Koch G36 (the German assault rifle), and the most interesting choice, Zastava M70 (an assault rifle created in Serbia).
Counter-Terrorism Police Force
Special Police Unit (Specialna Enota Policije) is the special police tactical unit of the Slovenian National Police Force, specialized in Counter-Terrorism issues. It was created in 1972 as a response to several terrorist attacks in Yugoslavia and the hostage crisis at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. After the break of Yugoslavia, the local unit became the national one.
Their tasks include anti-terrorist tasks, the arrest of dangerous criminals, VIP guarding, securing locations, co-operation with other police units, and their training.
The selection for this unit if highly competitive. A candidate must be in service at least six and a half years. They had to have some special habits like martial arts, shooting, skiing and so on. The candidates are medically examined as well as are asked to pass various psychological and physical tests in order to be prepared to push their physical and psychological limits.
The weaponry of this unit is wider, and it includes sniper rifles and light machineguns besides the pistols and assault rifles. Moreover, they have special armored vehicles for crisis regulation.
The unit is organized in three sections: the Command, the Operational Activity Section, the Operational Support Section (logistical and expert support), and the Bomb Disposal Section.
To Serve and Protect
The single organization of human society requires the social regulative unit. It helps legislative and judicial powers to observe people’s observing rules. This is the inevitable part of democracy because a right for democracy starts where it doesn’t cross the right for democracy of others. Of course, there are some cases where the police forces are used against people but not for them, like in some post-Soviet countries. However, now Europe is the example of “true” democracy.
Slovenia is an example as well. It has a decent level of democracy and protecting human rights. Hence, the Slovenian National Police Forces are democratic too. Let’s bring the example of a police strike in 2015-2016. They asked for better conditions, and they got them.
The same way is regarding the protection of citizens. The Slovenian police have enough of will as well as equipment to do that. Good salaries, the possibility for a rank rise, new cars, motorcycles, helicopters, possibility to get a position in the Special Police Unit. All these create diversity inside the career of policemen. In Slovenia, police officers like their job. This is the most crucial thing in order to have a secure, bribe less, and peaceful society.
