Is Hungary’s safety at risk? Police face serious challenges

Hungary is a popular tourist destination because it is perceived as a safe place, but one question arises: how long can this be maintained when there is a huge police shortage?

Police shortages

An article by HVG reports that police shortages could be much higher than the officially published police figures, according to trade unions. They say the government is hiding the problem and that in the central part of the country, for example, they can often only ensure adequate numbers by sending uniformed officers from other parts of the country.

Official figures show a shortfall of only 4-5,000, with a 91.3 percent saturation rate, yet there are reports that fish guards have been deployed to patrol some areas.

Police presence

It also tells us that Isaszeg, for example, which is part of the Budapest agglomeration, has only sent patrols to its 12,000 residents when the municipality pays millions extra to the police. This also means that in Hungary, police presence in cities is not included in the basic service.

Additionally, a key element of the police shortage is that, since the border police were disbanded under the first Orbán government, the police are still protecting the southern border from migration pressure, where they are being deployed. In addition, the government’s policy also requires police officers to serve abroad, for example, in the Balkans, in the fight against migration, while there are not enough local police.

Low pay, low number of applications

The situation is no better regarding police recruitment: around 2,000 police officers are recruited yearly. The 10-month patrol training course is attended by 500-700 people a year, while the two-year officer training course attracted thousands more a few years ago. This September, only 116 people started their studies at police technical schools, HVG reported, citing the National Police Headquarters.

In an interview with RTL last year, police human resources chief Csaba Czene said that, including all training and recruitments, 1,000-1,100 new police officers are recruited each year. This also means that they can broadly compensate for those leaving, but he admitted that the other sectors have a solid drain, especially in Budapest and the central part of the country.

Police salaries are not very attractive, despite pay rises in recent years, because much of them have been eroded by inflation: the average salary for professional staff is around HUF 470,000 net (EUR 1,100), including bonuses.

Firefighters have the same problem

In fact, the problem is not unique, the fire brigade has an official understaffing of 10 percent, but the union understands that there are municipalities where the problem is much greater. The firefighters’ union said that in Debrecen, Hungary’s second-largest city, a quarter of the staff is missing.

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