USR PLUS will abolish Local Police as it is thought today, as instrument for mayors

The Save Romania Union - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity (USR PLUS) Alliance will abolish the Local Police, as it is thought out today, as an instrument in the hands of mayors, said on Tuesday, the executive chair of PLUS, Dragos Tudorache, in a release.

"The USR PLUS Alliance will abolish the Local Police as it is thought out today, as an instrument in the hands of mayors, and will rebuild within the Romanian Police a public order service in the interest of the community and as close to it as possible, retrieving from the personnel of the current Local Police those who fulfill the necessary competence criteria and did not function as bodyguards of mayors," said Dragos Tudorache, former interior minister and coordinator of the USR PLUS Alliance.

According to the USR PLUS release, Tudorache stated that the Local Police proved "many times its inefficiency, its political subordination" and that its mandate was "badly defined from the very beginning."
Furthermore, "it always overlapped with the national Police" and "became an instrument" in the hands of mayors, he said.

According to USR PLUS, "PSD [Social Democratic Party] mayors in office transformed the local police into their own personal bodyguards," matter that needs to change after the September 27 local elections.

The Alliance also claims that, "upon the order of the District 1 [Bucharest] PSD mayor, the Local Police followed and monitored" Clotilde Armand, the USR PLUS candidate for the District 1 Hall.

"It's a clear case of political policing and a grave crime for which all those guilty must urgently pay. Clotilde Armand put forth a complaint with the DIICOT [Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism] and we hope prosecutors do their duty quickly. In the past years, the Local Police has become a personal militia of incumbent mayors all throughout Romania, used for settling scores, for preferential protection and guard and for anything else than the public interest. The USR PLUS Alliance believes the Local Police must be reorganized and put on healthy bases. Its purpose is to protect citizens, not the mayor. Its reason for existence is the law and not party interest," the release also shows