Ewa Gawor, Director of the Public Security and Crisis Management Bureau of Warsaw's City Hall, stressed during the conference that security is a top priority of the city's authorities. To ensure that, the city has co-financed fire brigades and police units.

Over the past three years the amount of PLN 78m was allocated to the Warsaw Police Department in the state budget. The monies were spent on remunerations for extra patrols, full-time constables and purchases of equipment, among other things, nearly 150 police cars and means of communication, namely, 600 computers and 150 radiotelephones. The police are also being equipped for the purpose of Euro 2012, with a mobile visual monitoring center.

Gawor said that in Warsaw there are more than 700 cameras in total, including 300 in the Warsaw subway, connected to the CCTV. Cameras can also be found in 200 city buses. Also any new vehicle ordered by the city of Warsaw will be equipped with a camera. Gawor stressed that the crime rate dropped by as much as 60% at the monitored locations and subsequent cameras will be installed at the locations designated by the police where the crime rate is the highest.

The amount of PLN 60m was granted to the Warsaw Fire Brigade and spent on, among other things, rescue and fire trucks, elevators and emergency flood kits. The construction of a new seat of the Fire Brigade in the Warsaw district of Białołęka cost nearly PLN 12m and was opened in May 2009. Another fire station financed by the city will be opened in October.

Employing nearly 2,000 street wardens, municipal police are in whole financed out of the city budget plan. In 2009 the related costs total PLN 124m. Gawor stated that at present the wardens have been undergoing linguistic training for the purpose of servicing the Euro 2012 championship.

Gawor also noted that thanks to municipal investments, Warsaw lost its status of the most dangerous city in Poland. Approximately 3,000 crimes were recorded in 2008 per 100,000 inhabitants. Such crime rate is higher in Katowice (approx. 6,000 crimes) and Kraków (approx. 4,000). According to a public opinion poll, nearly 75% of the inhabitants of Warsaw stated that they feel safe in their neighborhood after it gets dark. The statistics also show that Warsaw is safer compared to other European capital cities, e.g. Berlin (nearly 7,000 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants), Vienna (more than 6,000) or Prague (approx. 3,500).

The city continues to invest in security. Before Euro 2012 championship it is planned to establish a position for the purpose of coordinating all those services. The police, ambulance, fire department and municipal police will be available at one location and the same telephone number (112).

A two-day conference organized by Jacek Kozłowski, Voivode of the Mazovian Voivodeship and Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Warsaw's Mayor, will be attended by heads of security bureaus of the largest cities of 13 countries of the world, including, Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Budapest and Tel Aviv. They are going to discuss experiences related to the most serious crises that currently occur in urban agglomerations such as terrorist attacks, cyber attacks on bank systems, interrupted power supplies and security at mass events.

The conference will also be attended by coordinators responsible for security in the Polish host cities where Euro 2012 championship games will be organized. Austrian guests who organized Euro 2008 will share their experiences in organizing such events.

SOURCE: PPA [Polish Press Agency]