Armenian PM praises Patrol Service for effective work

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan praised today the Patrol Service, which has been operating in the capital since July 2020.

Patrol Police, a new police unit tasked with road policing, crowd control and street patrol, was established as part of a major structural reform of the national police service in 2020.

The reform was backed by the USA, EU, OSCE, UNDP and World Bank, which provided more than 5 billion drams in assistance to support it. They also pledged to provide assistance in the same volume in 2021 and 2022.

"Over the past months, the patrolmen have detained 875 people suspected of committing crimes and another 51 citizens who were on the wanted list," Pashinyan said at a government meeting.

According to the Prime Minister, a number of high-ranking officials and their relatives were among those who were held accountable for committing administrative offenses. One was a close relative of the Police Chief, who was penalized for a breach of traffic rules.

Pashinyan said: “Since 1991 when Armenia gained independence from Soviet Union, there has never been a case when family members of high-ranking officials were held accountable for such offenses.”

In 2021 February, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the government's plan to create a ministry of interior as part of a major structural reform of the national police service. Armenia had an interior ministry until former President Robert Kocharyan abolished it and turned the police into a separate structure subordinate to the president of the country.

The police became accountable to the prime minister after Armenia shifted to a parliamentary system of government in 2018. ($1 - 495.59 drams) -0-