Prague cops set up special unit for tourists

Prague is to install a team of police officers in the city’s main tourist areas. The team will guard the main tourist vein cutting through the center of Prague.

Prague is to install a team of police officers in the city’s main tourist areas. The team will guard the main tourist vein cutting through the center of Prague. At every moment from 10:00 am till midnight, at least seven police officers will operate on a section connecting Wenceslas Square with the Prague Castle via Old Town Square and Charles Bridge.

Members of the team will focus on combating street crime, above all pickpockets and money exchange fraudsters who give the gullible tourists, for instance, Bulgarian levas instead of Czech crowns. A more intensive cooperation between the police and the city camera system operators should help as well. As soon as a camera detects a suspect, it will alarm the police and send them the spot.

They speak English, German
As every year, mobile police stations will be installed at key junctions to help tourists in need. They will be available in Old Town Square, in Wenceslas Square, in Vรญtฤ›znรฉ nรกmฤ›stรญ, at Andฤ›l and in nรกmฤ›stรญ Kinskรฝch.

In each of them, there will be police officers able to tackle any problems tourists may encounter. They offer maps of Prague, first aid, as well as water for thirsty dogs on hot days.

Prague university students help the police officers deal with the tourists. โ€œEvery municipal police officer speaks one foreign language, but these students speak two or more,โ€ says municipal police director Vladimรญr Kotrouลก.

Besides expanding cooperation with students, the municipal police is planning a new service – longer working hours. The busiest mobile police stations in Old Town Square and in Wenceslas Square will remain open until 1:00 am. The other stations will close at 6:00-7:00 pm.

The scenario is the same every year. Intrusive beggars near popular Prague monuments, fraudsters who exchange euros and dollars for Bulgarian levas, pretending they are crowns, and pickpockets on the 9 and 22 tram lines.

Municipal police combat this by posting more uniformed officers in public transport vehicles. Forty policemen guard night trams every day. In the metro, buses and trams, they meet state police officers in plain clothes whose task is to merge with the crowd and catch the pickpockets in flagranti.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...