The attended speakers were: Dr. Rafał Batkowski (Director of Public Security at IBiRM -Institute of International Development and Seurity), Prof. Aleksandra Gasztold (Secretary General of Women in International Security Poland), Gen. Andrzej Matejuk (Commander-in-Chief of the Police during 2008-2012) and Dr. Marcin Mrowicki (Criminal Law Team of the CHR Office). The moderator of the debate was Mateusz Komorowski (Founder & President of MISO).

The Police force is the largest uniformed formation in the country, numbering about 100,000 officers and undertaking about 30,000 interventions every day. These numbers testify to the importance and position of this formation in daily lives of citizens, who encounter police officers in direct contact or watch their work almost every day. So how do we envision the Police of the future - as Police 2.0?

Dr. Rafal Batkowski described the Police of the future as an institution that takes full advantage of available digital benefits, cares about social relations, prevents crime, and effectively chases  offenders, while using modern technologies. In his view, the Police 2.0 is no longer enough. - The Police should strive to fully tackle cyber threats. Studies show that over 90% of all criminal behavior is related to cyber technologies. At the same time, the Police cannot lose sight of people, their needs, and should respond directly to expectations of every local community - Director of Public Security at IBiRM said.   

According to Prof. Aleksandra Gasztold, the Police of the future are the Police of tomorrow, i.e. the Police well-managed, with particular attention to an independent budget, which will be the result of setting a fixed percentage of GDP each year intended for activities of the institution. - The Police of the future are also well-trained Police. What we are dealing with today in terms of the training system is one big failure and discredit - Secretary General of Women in International Security Poland said. Prof. Gasztold also noted that, in her opinion, the Police of the future in a democratic state were the Police that particularly respected human rights.

- A police officer must first of all be very well trained. This will guarantee us that the Police, while carrying out interventions, will carry them out adequately to the threat - Gen. Andrzej Matejuk said.

Next, Dr. Marcin Mrowicki stressed that the Police of the future should be ahead of us all in technological innovations, using them to collect evidence and detect crimes. On the other hand, officers, in addition to being well equipped and trained, should be well paid. More importantly, Dr. Mrowicki thinks that police operations should be transparent and their measures should come under scrutiny by independent bodies.

Then we moved to identify challenges and priorities of the Police of the future. Dr. Batkowski said that there was a need to establish a special unit to deal with countering cyberspace cirme. He also pointed to crime prevention and contact with those vulnerable to crime. -There is a lack of public-private cooperation, including with regard to new technologies and their implementation into policing. There is also a lack of cooperation between the Police and security formations, exchange of information - Dr. Batkowski remarked.

Prof. Gasztold spoke of the need to monitor the quality of training, including its control and audit. In this context, she presented the civilian community’s demand to create a team under the Police Chief Commandant, to which representatives of the world of science and non-governmental organizations would be invited. Their task would be to improve the quality of officers’ training. A report would be produced annually and would include an evaluation of teaching processes at relevant courses and training programs.

The Secretary General of Women in International Security Poland also noted the need to strengthen the environmental police, which has a contact with a local community and involves the community in building a safe space.

- Poland could become a training site for the Union Task Force ATLAS. Currently, the lattert does not have its own permanent headquarters. With its appropriate infrastructure, Poland could make its training centers available, and we are also able to obtain EU funding for this initiative - Prof. Aleksandra Gasztold remarked.

Gen. Matejuk commented on these statements. In his opinion, it is necessary to establish a cybercrime division within the Police force. - There are many cyber security experts working in the private sector. We should employ them in the Police. For this to happen, bold decisions are needed in terms of equiping those police officers and ensuring adequate salaries - Gen. Matejuk said. He added that we should not forget about cooperation with local governments and strengthening the role of district police officers.

From the point of view of Human Rights Commissioner Office, it is important for the Police to respect human rights while carrying out all their tasks. Citing some challeges facing the Police, Dr. Marcin Mrowisko mentioned the need to eliminate torture and situations that humiliate people during an interrogation. He highlighted the issue of improving the situation in police stations so that there were separate places for interrogation and ensuring confidentiality of detainees’ contact with their counsels. In his opinion, adequate rooms should be made available for victims of sensitive crimes to be interrogated while maintaining standards and preventing repeat victimization. The Police should strive to use modern interrogation methods, based on a non-coercive relationship and aimed at comprehensive fact-finding - that is, to act in accordance with the Mendez Principles. Dr. Mrowicki also paid attention to the need to introduce an electronic registry of detainees so that the whereabouts of a given person could be quickly and easily determined.

- On the other hand, the creation of opportunities to quickly eliminate bullying within the police service should be addressed. Also important are issues related to whistleblowers, that is, people who have information about abuse. It is necessary to create conditions for them not to be afraid of reporting such situations - Dr. Mrowicki said.

In the next part of the debate, we talked about equipment, uniforms and training of the Police of the future. Dr. Mrowicki said that the CHR Office has from the beginning demanded that police officers be equipped with body worn cameras to record their actions. - As it turns out, those  cameras often stop working in situations requiring  an explanation. This is still an area that requires work on the transparency of activities -  he said.

- I am in favor of systemic solutions. I have established a position of plenipotentiary of the Police Chief for human rights. Today it is especially needed to go a step further and establish such a position in each district police headquarters. I have a conviction that there would be a lot of work to do for such a plenipotentiary, starting with attending every briefing and reminding every policeman that in the end it is the very policeman who makes a decision during an intervention. Human rights are the most important issue and should be taken care of at the police station -  Gen. Andrzej Matejuk said.

According to Prof. Aleksandra Gasztold, no new uniforms can replace good training. - Shortening basic training is a total absurdity. Since we have untrained people we cannot expect them to know how to behave in a situation requiring the use of direct coercive measures. Issues related to discrimination and bullying and protection of human rights should be especially important in the process of correct training -  Prof. Gasztold said.

Uniformed services, including the Police, always enjoyed a consistent and very high level of public trust in Poland - in virtually all surveys they ranked among the top institutions the Poles trusted the most.

The Police have been striving to gain a good reputation among Poles since 1989. Today, the situation is totally different. We see a huge decline in trust in the Police and massive image losses - indifference has also increased. Dr. Batkowski answered the question of how to build trust in the Police and what actions to take or avoid. In his view, greater public scrutiny is of key importance. Perhaps one solution would be to establish a social council under the Commander-in-Chief of Police. Another issue is tenure in office, or even competitions for positions at various levels. We cannot forget non-partisan nature of the Police and their budgetary independence, either.

The final topic addressed during the debate was the role of women in the Police of the future. Today, the sight of women in police uniforms does not surprise or astonish anyone. They chase traffic pirates and dangerous criminals, patrol the streets, participate in securing mass events, convoy detainees, support victims of violence and work with young people. These are just some of the tasks that policewomen have to deal with during their service.

The number of policewomen is growing every year. Currently, in 2021, there are about 17,000 women serving in the Police Department, which translates into 17% of the total number of officers in the service nationwide. However, according to Prof. Gasztold, women in the Police are severely undervalued, as we have only two female  police officers in the rank of general, and retired. Surely,  this is an issue that needs more consideration and action. The experts noted the need to continue this topic and conduct a broader discussion.

Summarizing our reflections on the Police of the future, it seems that several aspects require redefining and giving value to fundamental issues such as non-partisanship of the formation, effective management of the 100,000 strong organization, transparency of procedures and impartiality, as well as professionalism of policemen and policewomen. Three important pillars for building the Police of the future are worth highlighting:

• Police closer to the people - accessible to anyone in need;

• Police competent, nonpartisan, efficient and effective;

• Police as modern, innovative and proactive service in the face of cyber threats.