Rumors and reports are rife about the Chief of Police's resignation. Nikos Christodoulidis has reportedly started scouting days ago for the new person who is expected to replace Stelios Papatheodorou.
Rumor has it that the President is targeting someone outside the House. According to information, Nikos Christodoulidis knocked on the door of the Legal Service after spying on the Senior Attorney of the Republic. A second person in the legal world was also hit, whose name has seen the light of day several times.
However, the same information says that the President received negative responses from the above persons. For the record, let's say that the only citizen who served in the position of Chief of Police was Andreas Angelidis.
Mr. Angelidis resigned in 2002 declaring "he was very happy because his forehead was as clear as crystal". At the same time, the then Minister of Justice, Nikos Kosiis, also resigned.
Interesting, however, is the post by the jurist Achilleas Emilianidis on the history of the Chiefs of Police and the legal background of the appointment and termination of each Chief.
The post as it is
There has been an increase in the publications concerning the intention of the President of the Republic to replace the Chief of Police. For the occasion and without the current Chief or the current President being the subject of this note, I wish to refer more generally to the issue of the relations between the Chief of Police and the executive power.
Below is a summary of the unflattering history of the leadership of the Police in the last 15 years:
– Iakovos Papakostas: appointed on 30.4.2007 and resigned on 18.6.2009 due to the Kita case
– Michalis Papageorgiou: appointed on 29.6.2009 and terminated on 27.3.2014 after incidents of members of ELAM at an event in Limassol with speaker Talat
– Zacharias Chrysostomou? appointed on 28.3.2014 and terminated on 3.5.2019 due to the case of the serial killer "Orestes".
– On 15.5.2017, Deputy Chief of Police Andreas Kyriakou was also dismissed for breaching official confidentiality. Andreas Kyriakou was appointed on 23.10.2012.
– On 7.5.2019, Kypros Michaelidis was appointed Chief, until his retirement on 30.6.2020.
– The current Chief Stelios Papatheodorou was appointed on 1.7.2020.
The office of Chief and Deputy Chief of Police is essentially the only one (apart from the army) in which the Constitution provides for the possibility not only of appointment, but also of termination by the President of the Republic. In all the other positions provided for in the Constitution (I am not referring to the Council of Ministers, but to the Attorney General, Auditor General, Accountant General, Central Banker, Supreme Court Judges, members of the EDY, etc.) the appointment is made by the President, but the suspension is by the Court as Council and for misdemeanor only.
In the case of the Chief and Deputy Chief of Police, it is done simply by a political decision of the President, just as the appointment is also political. In other words, any police officer is terminated by disciplinary procedure (just like any civil servant), but as a Chief/Deputy Chief, he is appointed and terminated by a purely political decision.
When the Constitution was made in 1960, apparently the logic was that the Chief of Police (and the police) was an arm of the executive power. It is understandable that if the Chief/Deputy Chief are appointed/dismissed at will by the respective President, the dependence of the police force on the executive power is strong. We are in 2023. Is this the police we want? A police force that acts as an arm of the executive and whose leadership is considered a political appointment? In all other departments of the public administration, leadership is considered a department of public administration. Why should the police be any different?
The Institutions Committee of the Parliament has recently started the debate on problems in the functioning of the state and control mechanisms. I believe that the functional dependence of the police leadership on the executive power is a very serious problem and should be put forward in any similar discussion.
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