National police chief rejects ethnic based discrimination charges

(MTI) – Hungary’s national police chief firmly rejected claims of ethnic based discrimination when levying fines, in a letter released on the police homepage on Thursday.

Karoly Papp responded to an initiative by the Roma Press Centre and five civil rights groups that proposed on July 15 setting up a working group with the national police with the aim of “improving the (police’s) practice of levying fines for misdemeanours.”

According to signatories of the initiative, also including the Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Eotvos Karoly Institute, and the National and Ethnic Minority Rights Office, police officers especially in north-eastern Hungary were likely to discriminate against Roma delinquents and fine them more often than the non-Roma.

In his response, Papp said he paid “increased attention to ensuring that members of the national police fulfil their duties according to the country’s constitution which prohibits ethnic based discrimination”, and turned down the idea of the proposed working group.

The police chief firmly rejected suggestions that ethnic based consideration was behind a stronger police presence in the country’s north-east.

The size of police staff in a particular region is defined according to that region’s public safety indicators and criminal statistics and also by taking into account local government and citizens’ reports, he insisted.

Photo: www.vezess.hu

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters