Poland reforms anti-mafia Central Bureau of Investigation

Polish parliament will begin work on two separate bills to amend the law on the Polish Police, which will decentralize the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBŚ) and separate it from the structures of the Polish Police Headquarters (KGP).

Parliament members are to debate two projects, a governmental one and one of the Law and Justice (PiS) Party authorship, according to Polish news station TVN24. Both projects are very similar, with the only difference is a placement of the chief of the CBŚ in the police structure and the fact that PiS would like to authorize CBŚ to work abroad on certain occasions.

The name of the bureau will change from Central Bureau of Investigation to Central Bureau of Investigation of Police (CBŚP).

“The Central Bureau of Investigation of KGP, which concentrates on fighting organized crime is just an internal cell of KGP. (…) The constant and dynamic transformation of organized crime groups requires more elastic organizational solutions within the police, allowing more effective fight with this dangerous phenomenon,” according to the government.

The main task of the CBŚP will remain the same, to identify, to prevent and to fight the organized crime structures. CBŚP will also take over part of the investigative operations from the reformed Polish Internal Security Agency (ABW) on the field of the economic crime. Ultimately the ABW will be an internal information-gathering and analysis agency able of conducting investigations only in the areas of counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism.

According to the bill, CBŚP will become a structure similar to the provincial headquarters of the Polish police gaining more independency from the central headquarter. After the reform, the new structure will be strengthened with additional manpower, as more than 200 officers from KGP will be moved to CBŚP. At the moment the bureau has approximately 2,000 officers.

The chief of the CBŚP will be appointed by the Polish minister of the internal affairs.

The bill will not grant the CBŚP more financial independence. The budget of the bureau will still be dependent on the Polish national police chief. This has been a contentious issue in the past, and is responsible for the resignation of the previous chief of CBŚ, Gen. Adam Maruszczak, in the early 2013. Maruszczak wanted CBŚ to have its own operational budget distributed accordingly to its needs, according to the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.

The organizational cost of the reform was estimated at PLN 90,000. Additionally, the CBŚP will be moved to the new headquarter at Podchorążych street in Warsaw. According to TVN 24, the cost of the move was estimated on PLN 60 million.

Central Bureau of Investigation was created in 2000 as a cell of the KGP by merge of the Narcotics Bureau and the Anti Organized Crime Bureau. CBŚ was patterned on the similar institutions from Western Europe and US.

During the 14 years of existence, the CBŚ broke the back of Poland’s most notorious crime groups including the Pruszków and Wołomin mafias. According to the CBŚ’s official activity statement for 2012, the bureau broke up 183 criminal groups in Poland and secured assets worth PLN 248 mln. Fifteen narcotics labs and more than 100 professional marihuana plantations were liquidated. Additionally, 632 kg of marijuana, 457 kg of amphetamine and 200 kg of cocaine were secured by CBŚ in 2012.

 

Photo courtesy of cbs.policja.pl