History

In 1793 the first police office was set up in Karlovy Vary. The police commissioner divided the town into four quarters. The first quarter was formed by Tržiště, the second by Křížová ulice (today Vřídelní, from the Patria to Ondřejská ulice), the third quarter lay "by the church", that is roughly around today's Kolmá and Moravská with Petřín, and the fourth was today's Stará Louka.

In 1828, on taking office, Burgomaster Lenhart divided Karlovy Vary into eight districts and appointed an overseer for each, whose duties were chiefly:

• to remove vagrants from elsewhere with the help of the police;
• to see that the law was observed;
• to make sure that no food harmful to health went on sale, in particular meat from diseased animals and unripe fruit;
• to keep watch over young people loitering about, that is journeymen, apprentices and servants;
• to check daily that weights and measures were correct;
• to exercise the necessary supervision over children. Their special duties included keeping a register of the poor living in their district.

Volunteers

When needed, further helpers could be called in to guard the town. In 1789 several burghers put it to the town magistrate that their sons serving in the army could help keep the town safe during the carnival season. On that pretext, and at their request, the magistrate asked the relevant military command to grant them leave.

The food police

Four burghers were chosen to carry out food policing, and on 29 August 1792 the magistrate reported their names to the regional office for confirmation. These four police inspectors, or police overseers, were appointed because the police commissioner could not manage the inspection of food on his own, and in a spa town such inspection was more necessary than anywhere else. It came about following a complaint from the regional office and on its instructions. The checks concerned bakers and butchers above all. Bakers and butchers alike had to keep copies of the prices approved by the regional office and display them in their shops or on their butchers' benches, so that anyone could inspect them. A baker could be punished for failing to observe prices and quality with twelve hours in gaol and the confiscation of his bread, which was then given to the poorhouse. Butchers' benches had to be clean, and door-to-door trade in meat was not permitted. This period also saw the beginnings of the compulsory menus in eating houses. They had to state the prices of the dishes and were, of course, written by hand. They were renewed every month.

The guardhouse

On 29 April 1793 a commission hearing at the regional office resolved to set up a guardhouse in the form of a small booth against the wall by the river Teplá, so placed that two of its windows overlooked the Louka and the third the theatre. The guardhouse was to be big enough for four officers to stay in. Until then there had been three officers. It could be used for police purposes only.

After the war the police office was based in the town hall in Mlýnská ulice. The number of officers grew, so that on 1 May 1923 the strength was: 1 senior sergeant, 3 sergeants, 6 commanders, 38 senior officers, 24 officers and 5 agents.

In 1921 the uniforms were changed; the spiked helmets worn until then gave way to caps. Guardhouses stood in the town hall, in Pražská ulice and in house no. 580, the Bohemia, in Nádražní ulice.

Nationalisation of the municipal police

The order to nationalise the police, which was to take effect on 1 May 1923, arrived on 27 April. The transfer was therefore carried out almost overnight. The Karlovy Vary city council had evidently reckoned on keeping the police under its own administration, and so the task caught it entirely unprepared. A commission travelled from Prague on 27 April to carry the change through. The commissariat covered Karlovy Vary, Rybáře, Drahovice and Tuhnice. Residence registration now fell to the state as well.

On 1 May 1923 the state took over 36 municipal police officers in all, who were sworn in the same day. The remaining 31 officers were to be pensioned off on grounds of age, and the town undertook to provide for them for five years. In place of the officers not taken over, the state appointed new, Czech ones. Those who were taken over had to accept that from then on the same rules applied to them as to all other state employees, above all that they could be transferred at any moment, even into a Czech-speaking environment, regardless of their family circumstances. The state also took over all the premises used until then by the municipal police, that is the police office in the Second Administrative Building (Trautwein), the guardhouse in house no. 590, the town hall and the gaol.

 In 1925 the guardhouse was moved from the town hall to the Hans Sachs house, no. 133 in Vřídelní ulice. The town looked after these premises for another five years and then received rent for them.

 In 1933 it was decided to build new premises for the police commissariat, and the rooms in the Trautwein building were returned to the town. The officers taken over by the state were given one year to learn Czech. They sat the Czech examination on 1 May 1924: 27 of them were confirmed in their posts for good, two who failed were given another six months, four were dismissed on grounds of age, and the remaining three, of whom nothing is said, apparently left during the probationary period. The state also took over the officers serving in Rybáře, Tuhnice and Dalovice.

On 1 May 1924 the town set up an investigation office to handle the business the state police had not taken over. At the same time it formed a guard from the officers not taken over by the state, which supervised the municipal forests and the walking paths.

The year is 1991, and by its close a group of 19 people is looking after public order in Karlovy Vary. Their main task is to see that the town's general by-laws are observed. The first employment contract was signed on 1 July 1991. The five guardians worked directly under the head of the internal affairs department, who was there at the very birth of the municipal police, though at that time it was still only the town's order service. With a little exaggeration, then, one can say that the first "boss" of the municipal police was Ing. Jindřiška Gallová. From September, Ing. Stanislav Hubka was put in charge. It was he who transformed the order service into the municipal police, on the basis of general by-law no. 3/1992 on the establishment of the municipal police, of 5 May 1992. By the end of the year the newly created institution already had 41 employees. Numbers kept rising, but turnover was high at first. By 1997, when the municipal police employed 74 people, 157 applicants had been taken on, 83 of whom had left the ranks again.

The scope of the force's work, and the demand for it, led the city leadership to build a station in Stará Role. Two years later, in 1995, plans were drawn up for another station, this time for the Rybáře district. In 1995–96, as part of the refurbishment of the force's headquarters at Moskevská 34, the Rybáře station was built as well, in Sokolovská ulice. The year 1995 is significant for one more reason: after more than four years the serving chief left the municipal police and was succeeded by the long-serving police officer JUDr. Miroslav Pubrdle. With his arrival the force itself began to change. Pubrdle professionalised it on police lines, while also making use of the greater flexibility available in management and funding. He was thus able to put his experience from a placement in the USA into practice far more easily than would have been possible in the Police of the Czech Republic.

In 1997 the history of the municipal CCTV system (hereinafter the "MKDS") began. The first stage covered part of the commercial and administrative area; a year later it was extended into the spa zone. Those first camera points still formed the backbone of the system 15 years on. It should be added that grants from crime prevention programmes were repeatedly secured for the CCTV system. The same year that saw the start of the MKDS also saw the creation of a new form of front-line service: mobile patrols, or more precisely bicycle patrols. Since then five officers on mountain bikes have been out on the city's streets. That, incidentally, was one of the ideas of the chief of the day, and it was turned from idea into reality very quickly.

As turnover levelled off in 1999, the establishment was filled to its historic peak of 83 employees. That year, however, the force was struggling with frequent misuse of the emergency lines, which led to another successful project under the crime prevention programme. Its aim was to record and identify malicious calls.

The turn of the century was not a happy time for the municipal police. The city introduced savings that hit its work hard: a sharp cut in cover through fewer night patrols, a reduction in the central alarm monitoring service (PCO) and cuts to established posts. The redundancies that followed prompted more and more officers to leave, preferring in that uncertain period to serve with the Police of the Czech Republic, the army or the prison service. In December their chief, Pubrdle, also left the ranks. Four months later he was replaced by his deputy, Bc. Marcel Vlasák.

The second decade

For the municipal police, then, 2001 was above all a year in which stability returned. The wave of departures was halted in the middle of the year, by which time staff numbers had fallen from 82 to 68; a steeper drop was averted chiefly by the seven recruitment rounds held during that period. Vlasák and his team thus faced the fundamental task of settling the new employees in. Their professional training was only just beginning, and many of them later had to leave the force again. They plugged the staffing gaps for a time but did not match the long-term idea of an officer serving the people of Karlovy Vary. That experience led the management to tighten the selection process. The senseless, unplanned budget cuts soon came to an end when a budget amendment increased the force's funding again. The second half of 2001 was once more marked by the modernisation of the technology in use. Rebuilding the radio network with a repeater was the first step. Next came an upgrade of the central alarm monitoring desk, to which vehicle tracking was added. An internal camera system was brought into service, through which the force also watches the entrance hall of the city hall building. The MKDS underwent a much-needed overhaul. Alongside the technology, the municipal police also came up with something new for the public: from 1 December it began catching stray and lost dogs. It was not long before officers could add a wild boar, a roe deer, snakes, bats and other members of the animal kingdom to the list.

Coming through the crisis brought the city leadership round to supporting the municipal police: at its meeting of 19 March 2002 the city council adopted a new organisational structure for the force, under which the establishment was raised to 78 posts. The leadership naturally wanted those posts filled, but recruitment had to remain rigorous, since relaxing the requirements could have had fatal consequences. The following years were devoted to maintaining the existing technology, filling the establishment and raising officers' professional skills, including their further education. By the end of 2004 the force had reached 78 staff and a very acceptable turnover of 5%. In further education, cooperation with the Karlovy Vary University College, with the POLIS training institute and with the psychologists PhDr. Miroslav Pospíšil and PhDr. Jiří Bauer proved its worth. Through its active support for officer training, the municipal police had 80% of the matter settled a full five years before secondary education with a school-leaving examination became a legal requirement. In 2004 the city leadership introduced a staff scheme for officers in the form of life insurance paid according to years of service. The scheme, intended to motivate employees of the force and at the same time to keep them, is undoubtedly worthwhile.

The gradual development of the permanent duty desk culminated in 2006 in a new operations centre with the facilities the controllers needed for their work. That year also saw the creation of a supervisory service, which among other things took over contact with the public from the controllers and works closely with the minor offences unit. In the same spirit, the operations centre has been progressively extended and modernised. The equipment recording all of the centre's communications was replaced with a new system. Over the following years the MKDS was extended to Rybáře and Stará Role. Footage from what were by then 15 camera points is stored on upgraded equipment. From 2008 officers also had a mobile camera at their disposal, used mainly around schools.

In 2006, thanks to a successful project, the municipal police bought a speed radar with a grant from the Czech Ministry of the Interior, and so began a period of greater involvement by officers in moving traffic. This work was interrupted for a while by senseless changes in the law, but since 2011 the force has again shared the role of guarantor of safety on the roads. Alongside enforcement, which is clearly set out in coordination with the Police of the Czech Republic, six speed display signs of a clearly preventive character are used in the city. The statistical data give an idea of how well drivers observe the prescribed speed limits.   

In 2009 the municipal police switched entirely to a new digital radio network, which allows patrols to be tracked and therefore deployed more efficiently. The tracking previously limited to vehicles was thus extended to foot patrols too. Officers receive a "gift" from the legislators in the form of a duty to transport drunks to detoxification units, and to do so outside the city's boundaries. The city leadership partly offsets the complications of this substantial intrusion into local jurisdiction by buying the force a specially adapted transport vehicle. Technology and legislation are not the only things to change: so does the force's prevention programme, run by the crime prevention unit. The very good, long-term work of the officers in that unit contributes markedly to a more positive view of the municipal police. In that year the force was the first in the country to join the police project AJAX. A year later it launched a new project called the "Senior Academy", which met with a great response among older people from the very outset and was even extended in 2011, by then with the financial participation of the Ministry of the Interior. A great deal of information about the force's work, including its prevention programmes, is given by the chief of the municipal police, Vlasák, in the annual reports.

The year 2010 brought a period of zero investment. The city was economising again, so officers carried out only low-cost projects. Patrol cars were fitted with in-vehicle cameras, which not only record the view ahead but also, via GPS, the vehicle's movement and speed. In future the cameras will surely be replaced by an online system whose data the operations centre can use to the full. Officers were also given laptops in their vehicles with an online connection to the information system, allowing them to spend more time on the street and less at the station. Nothing prevents them from writing an official record in the car and printing it out at once at the operations centre. The year 2010 was important for the bicycle patrols as well, since it brought them their second set of new duty bikes since this form of service was introduced. Thanks to a sponsor's gift, officers now ride Specialized machines. At the end of the decade great recognition went to four officers from the crisis situations unit, who demonstrated their skills in freeing people from vehicles during floods at themed training events at the Brno exhibition centre and, on invitation, also spoke at the Autotec conference.  

The following year, 2011, brought officers the eagerly awaited renewal of the vehicle fleet, part of which was already falling apart. That is putting it a little strongly, but two years without funding had clearly left their mark on the cars. At the end of the year the two-stage replacement of the almost 20-year-old service pistols also began. The year 2011 matters for another reason as well: the signing of a revised Coordination Agreement covering above all cooperation between the municipal police and the Police of the Czech Republic. It was first concluded in 2009 and, after two years, was amended in the light of the practical experience of both services. It should be added that this very good cooperation rests above all on a personal, human footing. The year 2011 also brought staffing changes. The administrative section was slimmed down by one post, and the regular checking of parking meters was abolished, and with it the post of operator. At the same time a new patrol and beat service was introduced for the outlying city districts, the mobile beat service (hereinafter the "MOS"), whose motto is "Time for the citizen". The municipal police is trying to get closer to residents, and alongside the district map on its website it has, after some years, come up with another measure in the form of the MOS.       

Twenty years on, the year 2012 is proof of how well founded municipal and communal police forces are. The Karlovy Vary force is today an inseparable part of the machinery dealing with local matters of public order and safety. As in previous years, the "keeper of order" came up with something new this year too: Segway personal transporters. Officers assigned to the spa district were due to take to the streets on this green, low-cost machine in the middle of the year.

The third decade

With 2013 the municipal police moved into the third decade of its existence. Like many other municipal police forces in the Czech Republic, the organisation has to contend with a shortage of good applicants. That has led not only to changes in its personnel work, but also to an effort to make greater use of technology in front-line service to make it more effective. In 2015 the modernisation of the MKDS began, together with its further rapid expansion, which draws on the city's fibre-optic network and brings schools into the project. The first to be connected were the nursery school in E. Destinnové and the Školní primary school. The CCTV system was gradually extended to almost 60 camera points. From 2016 officers also had a new information system, which made it possible to enter data fully through mobile devices straight from the street. The online camera system in the vehicles, in turn, gives the operations centre up-to-date information on the situation in the field.   

A major problem has gradually arisen: not only the growing number of rough sleepers who, despite the good social work of the city and above all of the Salvation Army, remain on the street dependent on alcohol and drugs, but above all the inability of the state to tackle the issue effectively and give municipalities the tools they need. The unsystematic arrangement of detoxification units in the Czech Republic does nothing to improve matters. Under agreements between the bodies concerned, in 2015 the municipal police took full responsibility for transport to the detoxification unit, with the aim of easing the burden on the medical facility, which should primarily serve patients.      

The Crime Prevention Assistant project (hereinafter the "APK") was launched in Karlovy Vary too in 2013, thanks to the municipal police. Its primary aim was to ensure public order and safety in areas with municipal hostels and in other problem localities. The number of assistants was gradually raised to 13. From the very beginning the force drew grants from projects of the Czech Ministry of the Interior, then from the EU and, in the third stage of the project, from the Labour Office in Karlovy Vary.

A great step forward was the MOBIDIK project (Mobile Interactive Children's Club), a clubroom on wheels. The bus converted for the purpose took first place among prevention projects in the Czech Republic for 2014 and, indirectly, thanks to the efforts of officers and Salvation Army staff, helped bring about a low-threshold centre for children and young people in Úvalská ulice. This period saw the involvement of the municipal police in social matters become markedly more pronounced, for it is officers who are the first to encounter the effects of difficult social circumstances, and the public expects them to find a solution.

The requirement to sit re-certification examinations before a commission of the Ministry of the Interior every three years contributes greatly to officers' expertise. Nothing changed when the interval was extended to five years and a "final" examination after 20 years was written into law, since the employer continues to apply the obligation of so-called post-certification training and supports officers in other areas of education and professional growth as well. The Karlovy Vary municipal police was one of the few forces to have no staffing difficulties with the statutory requirement concerning officers' education, and it met it fully two years ahead of time. 

Training and instruction focus on mastering intervention tactics, on communication with difficult members of the public and, not least, in the central alarm monitoring service, on handling cases in which people are threatened by an "active shooter".

The fourth decade

The year 2023 is recent, so one can hardly speak of history yet, even though today's world moves very fast, headlong even. The municipal police has joined the SOS 112 project and is planning to build a new station, which, incidentally, it certainly deserves. The use of further technology, such as the CAM-CAR monitoring vehicle, a voice dispatch system for the operations centre and acoustic detectors, is already at the stage of projects in progress, and once these have become history we shall write about them here in more detail :-).