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Hungary National Police
The public police forces performed routine police
duties
throughout the country. Although they operated within
local
jurisdictions, they were centrally organized and
controlled by
the Ministry of Interior.
To become a public police officer, a candidate had to
have
finished general elementary school and, in theory, to have
completed two ten-month training periods. However, most
officers
serving in 1989, according to the Ministry of Interior,
did not
have this kind of education. In the late 1980s, morale
problems
affected the police. Inflation had eaten away their
salaries, and
the crime increases had overburdened their work loads
(see Incidence of Crime
, this ch.) In addition, policemen could
not
travel to the West. On July 5, 1989, policemen founded the
Independent Policemen's Trade Union to protect their
interests.
As Hungary inched toward democracy during the late
1980s the
populace felt freer to criticize the police. The Ministry
of
Interior, in turn, felt obliged to publicize reforms. For
example, in April 1989, the Federation of Young Democrats
staged
a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of
Interior. This organization was protesting the lenient
sentences
given by military courts to policemen who committed
brutality.
Federation members demanded that the minister of interior
resign
and that the ministry be removed from party control.
More surprising was the ministry's reaction to this
criticism. In a press conference, a ministry spokesperson
claimed
that the "direct supervision" of the ministry had indeed
been
transferred to the government. During the same month, a
ministry
spokesperson condemned the acts of some police officers
who had
abused their authority and engaged in "impermissible
activities."
In the late 1980s, the ministry appeared to be concerned
with its
public image and claimed to be investigating "all
allegations" of
unlawful or improper activities by its agents. In a rather
euphemistic but telling statement, Minister of Interior
Horvath
proclaimed in August 1989 that "protection of the public
order
[must] be provided according to European standards in the
late
20th century."
Data as of September 1989
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