After the attack in Kraków, there will be more patrols with long weapons on Polish streets, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński announced. As he stressed, the tragedy means a “massive change” in the work of the police and services.
The Minister of Interior and Administration spoke about this in an interview for “Gazeta Wyborcza”. “We have a new reality. There will be more patrols with long weapons on Polish streets” – Kierwiński said.
Submachine guns for almost all police officers
The Interior Minister announced that the government plans to equip almost all police officers with submachine guns. He is, as he said, “convinced that the police must have more long weapons”.
At the same time, Kierwiński noted that he does not think long weapons would have changed anything in the Kraków attack. He left the assessment of this to counter-terrorism experts.
Dispute over SAFE
The minister links the purchases to funds from the EU’s SAFE programme. In a TV programme he said that the police are being systematically armed with long weapons too, and that SAFE funds were to be used, among other things, to buy weapons and better bulletproof vests. He accused President Karol Nawrocki of blocking this money. According to Kierwiński, the plan to equip the police was drawn up before the attack, but secured funding was lacking.
Criticism after the attack
The opposition is raising questions about weapons and the number of patrols at the Main Market Square in Kraków. PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński pointed out that despite the BRAVO alert level being announced, there appeared to be several officers without long weapons on the Market Square. He also accused the minister of speaking too early about the perpetrator’s views.
The police, for their part, reported that more than a thousand officers were involved in the response to the incident – from the patrols that arrived at the scene first to counter-terrorism units.
As of publication, the Ministry of Interior and Administration has not presented a schedule or the number of weapons that will be delivered to the police.
