Today, 4 May 2011, in the Police Academy, the Director-General of the Police, Janko Goršek, conferred awards to authors of three of the best evaluated examples of good practice among the Police for 2010. This year's selection of examples of good practice was marked by solutions based on information technology.
A varied set in terms of the content and the forms of various cases of good practice shows that employees in the Police have many innovative ideas and that the desire to improve the work of the Police is at a high level. This year, 12 submitted applications were evaluated by the members of the Commission. This time, in contrast to previous years when solutions on how to make the Police more accessible and open in relation to local communities and how to bring the Police closer to people stood out, the information technology solutions proved to be the best:
1st place: Computerised recognition of persons according to photography
(authors: Valter Zrinski from the Criminal Police Directorate of the Police Directorate Ljubljana, Gregor Kovač, MSc, from the Criminal Police Directorate, and Jernej Virant, MSc, from the Information and Telecommunication Office at the General Police Directorate).
The best evaluated example of good practice represents an important contribution to the more operational and efficient work of the Police, as with its introduction the procedure for the recognition of persons according to photography has been significantly improved. The solution represents a simple and efficient tool for the work of police officers and criminal police officers when investigating criminal offences. Because the application functions in the Police's central computer system the problems linked to access, authorisation and archiving are thus eliminated. That it is a matter of an exceptionally successful example of good practice is shown by the data that the application was implemented in practice last July, and it is now used by all Police Directorates.
2nd place: A calculator to calculate the length of time of residing in the Schengen area
(authors: Anton Cafuta from the Uniformed Police Directorate and Albin Gradišnik from the Operation and Communication Centre of the Police Directorate Maribor)
The Schengen calculator is an excellent aid for the work of police officers at border crossings and in the hinterland of the country who, upon checking third country citizens determine the number of days of their stay in the Schengen area. The application increases the efficiency of the working process as it shortens the control of residence in terms of time and, in addition, it represents a unique solution since a similar application is not found in any EU Member State or the Member States of the Schengen area.
3rd place: Searches for weapons wanted for ballistic investigations - updating of operation
(author: Tomaž Korbar from the National Bureau of Investigation)
By means of better and easier and more efficient work in terms of operation, the application enables significant progress in the transparency of searched-for weapons. With this solution the time from the confiscation of the weapon to the provision of the feedback information necessary for the operational level of police work is shortened.
As pointed out by the Director General of the Police, Janko Goršek, in his opening speech, the conferring of awards for examples of good practice is particularly important since in times when in the Police there are no funds for rewarding employees it means recognition for work well done. "The work of the Police will always undergo critical judgement and there is nothing bad about this. If we wish to retain high standards, bad work needs to be condemned and non-fulfilment of obligations punished. On the other hand, we should not forget about praise for tasks well done. Excellent work would need to be particularly rewarded, but during the recession there are fewer and fewer instruments with which we would additionally motivate employees who during their work have surpassed the expected performance and have added originality to their task. The solutions which have been prepared have outgrown their original concept as they also benefit other police officers who will carry out their duties in an even more efficient manner".
|
In the Police we strive for the cost-effectiveness of work and the introduction of even more efficient working processes. For this purpose, by means of an internal appeal for people to make applications, cases of good practice have been sought since 2004, and in this manner units and employees who are able to identify, develop and implement good solutions during their work. The term "good practice" represents a solution which is innovative, relates to the organisation or business process, signifies a financial, information technology or other business solution and which is established and tested in practice and contributes to increasing efficiency, reducing costs, improving the quality of services, enabling easier access of users to services or to greater satisfaction of users or employees. |
Regardless of the results of the selection, also this year, all application proposals which were implemented and successfully transferred from theory into practice by authors have contributed to a more efficient working of the Police. Examples of good practice raise great interest also during the visits of foreign Police. In order to make an overview of what has been achieved, the conference regarding cases of good practice in the Slovenian Police was organised last year and the transfer of knowledge and useful experiences into other units was facilitated. Responses were extremely positive and authors were additionally encouraged to participate with their contributions to conferences outside the Police.
As said by Goršek, today, in the Police, the working environment favouring innovative ideas rules: "For every organisation it is important not only to point out bad work but also to find and to praise work which is well done. That is why it is right that cases of good practice are recognised and evaluated in the Police and the best among them are rewarded and presented to the domestic and the broader public".