The government intends to establish a Public Security College in Lithuania, where internal service officers will be trained.
The Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday approved the creation of a working group on the issues of establishing the college.
"High demands are placed on officers, they must be able to perform their duties in the most difficult situations while ensuring public safety. At the moment, we can only provide officers with professional training, but that is not enough," said Interior Minister Rita Tamašunienė in a comment transmitted to BNS.
"It is necessary to create opportunities for officers to acquire higher competencies by continuing professional studies at a higher education institution according to the tiered model of officer training, when officers' professional training and higher education studies are coordinated. The establishment of a public security college would help ensure this," she added.
The Ministry of the Interior promises to strive for the newly created college to belong to itself.
After deciding to establish the Public Security College, it will be implemented in several stages. First of all, it will be necessary to initiate an amendment to the Law on Science and Studies, as well as to clarify other laws in order to detail the provisions of the college's activities.
Later, it will be necessary to start the college's accreditation procedure, and at the same time prepare and harmonize the study programs.
The new college is being created after the Ministry of the Interior quarreled with the Mykolas Romeris University regarding the Public Security Academy operating at this higher education institution, which was supposed to train higher-ranking officials.
Last September, the ministry stated that the university was not inclined to comply with the agreements to jointly develop new officer training programs, to create a step-by-step integrated training of officers and took "uncoordinated unilateral actions, thus compromising the very idea and discrediting the name of the Academy of Public Security."
Božena Zaborovska-Zdanovič, the spokeswoman for the Minister of the Interior, told BNS that the purpose of creating the college is because more theoretical knowledge is taught at the university.
Author Saulius Jakučionis
