Slovakian police officer says Gardaí enjoy respected status
A visiting Slovakian police officer has expressed his admiration at the way An Garda Siochana is respected in the community.
Major Michal Rajnoha of the Slovakian police was on a week long visit here.
He was complimentary of the way in which Gardaí interact with members of the public on a daily basis in Sligo.
He found the Gardai in Sligo to be very friendly and welcoming and are like a close family and have great respect for one another and their management. He noticed that the Gardaí are well known and respected by the people of Sligo and he says this is a real asset to the force.
Michal is a Major with the Slovakian police based in Banská Bystrica in the National unit of trafficking of human beings and illegal migration. He spent the past week in Sligo as part of an CEPOL exchange programme.
In an exchange, Sligo Garda Ann Marie Grimes spent a week in Slovakia already.
Major Michal Rajnoha met with frontline Gardai and detective unit in Sligo Garda station and immigration officer Lynda loughlin. He also visited Sligo District Court and the Garda National immigration unit.
Michal also attended Invisible Traffik talk in city hall on Thursday. This was an awareness raising event about human trafficking.
The exchange is part of CEPOL programme which is an agency of the European Union dedicated to develop, implement and coordinate training for law enforcement officials and was established in 2015.
Major Rajnoha will submit a report to the agency on his visit to Sligo.
There are 100 police officers attached to national unit of trafficking of human beings and illegal migration in Slovakia including Major Rajnoha.
The unit is based in Bratislava, Banská Bystrica and east Slovakia, and border police on Ukraine border.
Slovakia is a source, transit and destination country for women and girls from Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, the Balkans, the Baltics, and China trafficked to Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Croatia, and Slovenia for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Men from Vietnam were trafficked to Slovakia for the purpose of forced labour. Roma women and girls from Slovakia are trafficked internally for sexual exploitation.
It is also happening in Ireland today with people are being trafficked to provide slave labour or forced into prostitution.
The ranking structure of the police in Slovakia is military. Michal Rajnoha has the rank of major and has 14 years service completed and can retire after 25 years service.
Garda Ray Wims, spokesperson for the Sligo Leitrim Garda Representative Association said the Garda members in Sligo are gaining invaluable experience from these CEPOL police exchanges about policing methods, new cultures, sharing ideas, experience, knowledge, and so much more.
Police officers get to pick the brain of a foreign-trained police officer, compare tactics, methodology, and experience first-hand.
There was also a recent visit to Sligo of an Italian police officer on the same CEPOL exchange programme.