August 24, 2022 - The more trust citizens have in the police or the more convinced they are that the police work in their interest, the more willing they are to respect police decisions and work with the police in a common interest.

As Poslovni writes, the Split-Dalmatia police issued a communication manual for police officers, unique in Croatia, in which they are advised on how to make a first impression on citizens, how to talk to them, and what not to do.

The manual also explains the interview procedure at the police station, how to conduct an interview with victims of violence, what to do when a disgruntled citizen addresses them and how to react when the situation escalates.

The manual, authored by the head of the Trogir police station, Marko Doljanin, was distributed to all police stations in the county and can be read on the website of the police department.

Doljanin said for Hina that communication skills are an essential element in the successful performance of police work.

He believes that relations between citizens and the police are created in communication, that is, a relationship of trust is either established or not, and citizens' trust in the police is a necessary precondition for the successful performance of police work.

The more trust citizens have in the police or the more convinced they are that the police work in their interest, the more willing they are to respect police decisions and work together with the police in some common interest.

“Colleagues in the field say that the manual helps, and we also received praise from citizens who expressed their satisfaction with the work of the police officers. When a citizen feels the need to write about it and send it to us, it means that they were touched by the exchange and that they noticed that the communication was professional”, said Doljanin.

Split police spokeswoman Antonela Lolić said that they realised that they could help their colleagues, especially young police officers, with a manual right at the beginning of their career, because they believe that communication is something that they can always improve.

She stated that the first impression citizens have about the police is based on how they are approached, what they are asked, and what interest is shown.

The idea for ​​the Communication Manual for Police Officers came to the head of the Trogir station, Marko Doljanin, by looking at his biggest dilemmas and what could be improved to make police work better and to ensure that citizens are more satisfied.

“He collected materials from his own and other experiences, and now we have a booklet as a reminder to our police officers of the most common situations they find themselves in and the correct ways to act in them”, said Lolić.

The Ministry of the Interior is also satisfied with the communication manual for police officers, which was financed by the Security Committee of the Split-Dalmatia County, where they confirmed that it has the potential to be widely used in the Croatian police, at the same time confirming that it is the first of its kind in Croatia.

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ZAGREB, 16 June 2022 - Ship's officer Toni Jurišić has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere between the Gibraltar and Trinidad and Tobago, the Nestali website of the national register of missing persons said on Thursday.

Jurišić (35), of Split, disappeared from a ship owned by a Greek company on 10 June. He is a member of the crew, and his disappearance is registered with the Split-Dalmatia County Police Department.

The secretary-general of the Croatian Seafarers Union (SPH), Neven Melvan, confirmed to Hina that Jurišić is an officer, that the SPH was notified on Monday and that they are in contact with the family and the company.

He said that the vessel in question is owned by a Greek company and is used for the transport of liquefied natural gas. He said that the search and rescue operation is continuing and that the ship has covered more than 200 miles in search of the missing Croatian officer.

Melvan said that the police are expected to conduct an onboard investigation once the ship has reached port.

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ZAGREB, 26 April 2022 - Šibenik-Knin police confirmed on Tuesday that they are investigating an incident in which several stickers with Chetnik symbols were put on public lamp posts in Knin over the past weekend.

A spokesman for the Šibenik-Knin County police departement, Šime Pavić, said that on Sunday the police noticed stickers with Chetnik symbols on several public lamp posts and that the incident was being investigated.

In a statement for the Slobodna Dalmacija daily, Knin Mayor Marijo Čačić said that he is convinced that the perpetrators were not from Knin. "Their intention is to stir the waters in what is usually a peaceful life in Knin," Čačić said, underscoring that there is no tension among the local population.

He added that the town's municipal officers had inspected local CCTV webcams together with the police in an effort to identify the perpetrators.

Former Knin mayor and incumbent county head Marko Jelić made a similar comment. "The fact is that the past Easter holidays is a period when many people who moved away from Knin visit their hometown. Some of them nurture feelings that are certainly not Christian and create problems for us all, particularly for the Orthodox Serb community in Croatia," Jelić said.

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ZAGREB, 2 April 2022 - Four Montenegrins, who were arrested on Thursday while they were trying to smuggle Afghan migrants across Croatia, were on Saturday placed in custody after an investigating judge in Karlovac ordered their detention as they were a flight risk.

The four Montenegrin men, aged between 24 and 32, were charged with the illegal transport of migrants and with forgery of documents.

The suspects were nabbed by the Croatian police in the hamlet of Kukača in the morning of 31 March, while they were transporting irregular Afghan migrants on their way to west Europe.

The migrants were placed in the trunks of the two cars driven by the Montenegrins, and they were being transported in life-threatening conditions, being concealed in a small space without enough air to breathe, according to the report issued by the local prosecutor.

ZAGREB, 22 Feb 2022 - The Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice and Administration and the Victim and Witness Support Association have signed an agreement on cooperation in implementing a pilot project that would ensure that victims of crime receive support and assistance from the moment they report a crime to the police.

The agreement aims to improve the status of victims of crime in pre-trial proceedings, the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement on Tuesday, 22 February, which is observed across Europe as the European Day for Victims of Crime to raise awareness of the rights of victims of crime.

The pilot project aims to ensure systematic support for victims of crime and promote the victim and witness support system in accordance with the EU directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime.

The results of the pilot project will be used as the basis for further planning the development of the victim support system. The project will be carried in 2022 in cooperation with the Koprivnica-Križevci County Police Department and the Zagreb Police Department.

ZAGREB, 19 Feb 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Saturday held an impromptu news conference following the arrest of Construction Minister Darko Horvat and called on the Office of State Attorney-General (DORH) to explain the case in greater detail.

Construction Minister Darko Horvat was driven in a police car from his hometown in Međimurje to the Zagreb headquarters of the Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) for further questioning on Saturday afternoon after his house in Donja Dubrava was searched by the police.

Horvat's lawyer, Vladimir Terešak, told the national HTV broadcaster that the minister had been arrested and that he would be interrogated in the USKOK main offices in Zagreb.

On Saturday morning, media outlets reported that the police were searching the flat of Minister Darko Horvat in connection with his former aide Ana Mandac implicated in the scandal dubbed wind parks where the main suspect is a former state secretary Josipa Rimac.

According to the unofficial information, the ongoing probe relates to the allocation of grants under an aid scheme for crafts and SMEs in the areas populated by ethnic minorities while Horvat served as Economy Minister.

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ZAGREB, 19 Feb 2022 - Saturday's breaking news about a police investigation in Minister Darko Horvat and Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević over alleged abuse of power in grant disbursement prompted Opposition politicians to make immediate comments about the developments on social networks.

Anka Mrak Taritaš of the GLAS party ironically tweeted that "a new curse has appeared: Avoid Anka Mrak-Taritaš-sponsored motions of no confidence!" She thus referred to the fact that the motion of no confidence against Minister Horvat, she tabled in the parliament, would be on the parlaiment's agenda next week.

Bojan Glavašević of the Green-Left parliamentary bloc, also commented that it could be (in)suitable to have that motion of no confidence next week.

According to unofficial information, the probe is about Horvat's alleged abuse of power in the case of awarding grants to businesses when he served as economy minister, while the opposition now demands his resignation over his incompetence in conducting the post-quake reconstruction.

Krešo Beljak of the HSS party said that the news about a minister of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) cabinet being implicated in a scandal is nothing new.

Nikola Grmoja of the Bridge party writes on his Facebook account that Horvat will soon be fired and that the next minister to be fired is (Economy Minister Tomislav) Ćorić "against whom we have initiated a vote of no confidence".

It is high time this corrupt government led by Plenković should be ousted and new elections should be called, Grmoja said.

Dalija Orešković of the Centre party called for timely and effective investigations rather than follow-ups to some old stories.

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ZAGREB, 8 Oct 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Friday that police officers were involved in violence against migrants on the Bosnian border, which was reported by Croatian and European media earlier this week.

"The police director, as soon as he saw the footage, sent an expert team which worked very intensively and as far as I know at the moment, they established that those were police officers," he told Croatian reporters in Luxembourg, where he is attending a meeting of EU interior ministers.

Božinović said he assumed it was "some individual offence by several police officers," adding that the police director was expected to provide more details today.

On Wednesday evening, a number of European media outlets showed disturbing footage of a migrant pushback on Croatian territory. The footage shows men, wearing balaclavas and clothes similar to those of Croatian police, pushing migrants across a backwater of the Korana river towards Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In doing so, the men were hitting the migrants with batons such as those used by Croatian riot police and some wore vests like those worn by that unit.

According to the media, the footage was taken in June as part of an investigation by a number of European media outlets.

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ZAGREB, 3 Sept 2021 - Croatia's road death toll rose by 19 or 10.9% to 193 fatalities in the first eight months of 2021 in comparison to the corresponding period of 2020, the interior ministry stated on Friday.

The ministry presented these data in a press release in which it called for additional caution in traffic during the new school year that starts on Monday.

One in four fatalities riders or passengers on mopeds and motorcycles

The ministry said that in the first eight months, 52 riders or passengers on mopeds and motorcycles lost their lives in road crashes, which means that they accounted for one in four fatalities.

One of the worrying indicators is that of the 55 car drivers or passengers who died in traffic accidents, 31 (56.4%) had not fastened their safety belts.

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ZAGREB, 23 July 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday he expected additional reports from all security services about last year's terrorist attack on the government building in St Mark's Square in Zagreb, because he doubted that the attacker did not have any accomplices.

"This matter is too important and too serious and it was not discussed much. If it happened in any other country, believe me, no stone would be left unturned until it was found who got this person to do something like that," Plenković told reporters during a visit to the southern island of Hvar.

The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office (DORH) said on Thursday that the 12 October 2020 attack, carried out by 23-year-old Danijel Bezuk, was an act of terrorism but that the attacker did not have an abettor or instigator. 

Commenting on DORH's decision, Plenković said that he had seen footage of the attack, recalling that the perpetrator had twice returned to shoot at the government building and police.

"This incident was unprecedented. The perpetrator was young. This act cannot be described otherwise than a terrorist attack because it was an attack on an institution," the prime minister said.

He added that it was hard for him to believe that such a young person had committed such a crime for no reason and unprovoked.

"I think additional efforts should be made to see who are the people who influenced such a young person, who indoctrinated him and led him to do something like that. I don't think that he himself made the gun that he used, or that he learned to shoot on his own, or that he came to that decision on his own. I doubt there were no abettors or instigators," Plenković said.

He said he still stood by his statement that the attacker was influenced by "certain political parties".

"I will not be naming any names now, but I mentioned them the other day," Plenković said, alluding to parties that accuse his government of being a "Croatian-Serbian trading coalition". 

He said that he supports tolerance and respect for ethnic minorities and is against an exclusive and aggressive Croatia, stressing that parties like that will never be partners to his HDZ.

Asked how long St Mark's Square, the seat of the Government and Parliament, would stay fenced off, Plenković said that this decision rested with the Ministry of the Interior and security services. 

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