Police corruption - heads must roll, but not necessarily the guilty ones

A flurry of scandals surfaced over the past few days, concerning a leak of confidential information in Poznań, a theft of narcotics from a police compound in Łódź, orgies taking place at a Wrocław police station and Gazeta Wyborcza's revelations regarding an investigation of corruption in Warsaw's Police Headquarters. The latter turned out to be false, a result of provocation on the part of Jan Markowski, the head of the Olsztyn unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBŚ). On Monday Kalisz resigned and suggested to his deputies that they do the same, but they declined. Now Brachmański has been sacked by the PM. "The public wants heads [to roll], here is a head," commented Brachmański. As for Szreder, he has ten days to present an action plan to Kalisz, who also wants to reinforce the Internal Affairs division of the Police. Szreder said that honest policemen have nothing to worry about. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 6) T.J.