December 23, 2022 - The Zagreb police presented their traditional Peace and Good action on Thursday, the 22^nd of December. This year, they again warned that the consequences of using pyrotechnics can be serious and lasting, especially for children. For that purpose, they also published a video on their YouTube channel starring the Croatian football team coach Zlatko Dalic.

Like in most places, pyrotechnics are quite popular in Croatia during the festive period. Their use, however, often leads to injuries. "Most often, these are injuries to the fingers, hand, arm, and eye, and unfortunately, in some cases, they result in permanent disability," said Zlatko Sekačić from the Zagreb Regional Anti-Explosion Unit, as reported by Index.

The warning was accompanied by a video published on the MUP YouTube channel, in which they warned about the dangers of pyrotechnics. The star of the video is Zlatko Dalic, the coach of the Croatian national football team.

The head of the Prevention Department of the Zagreb Police Department, Velimir Tišma, emphasised that pyrotechnic devices can cause fires, and their use can be exceptionally dangerous in closed spaces and places where a large number of people gather.

"Don't give children something that could hurt them."

"Firecrackers are not toys, so we advise parents to be responsible and not to give children something that could hurt them, not to underestimate children's interest in pyrotechnics, and to refrain from using pyrotechnics," Tišma said.

The Zagreb police point out that from December 15 to January 1, in accordance with the Act on Explosive Substances and the Production and Trade in Weapons, the purchase of some pyrotechnic devices is permitted, while their use is allowed from December 27 to January 1, 2023.

The police also note that permitted pyrotechnic devices are only to be purchased from sellers authorised by the Ministry of Interior.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

December 4, 2022 - Chinese police officers were seen on a joint patrol with their Croatian colleagues on the streets of the capital Zagreb in July. According to CNN, Chinese police stations were set up across Europe, including Croatia.

As Poslovni / CNN reported, Beijing has set up more than 100 so-called overseas police stations worldwide, including in Croatia, to monitor, harass, and in some cases, return Chinese nationals living in exile.

At the same time, writes CNN, the Chinese are using bilateral security agreements concluded with countries in Europe and Africa to gain a broad international presence.

Madrid-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders has found evidence that China operates 48 additional police stations abroad since the group first revealed the existence of 54 such stations in September.

A new report called "Patrol and Persuade" focuses on the scale of the network and examines the role that joint police initiatives between China and several European countries, including Italy, Croatia, Serbia, and Romania, have played in the expansion of China's overseas outposts.

Among the new claims made by the group is that a Chinese national was forced to return home by operatives working undercover at a Chinese overseas police station in the suburbs of Paris, recruited specifically for the purpose, in addition to earlier revelations that two other Chinese were forcibly returned from Europe – one in Serbia, the other in Spain.

China struck agreements on joint police patrols with Croatia and Serbia between 2018 and 2019 as part of the nation's growing strategic influence as outlined in China's foreign policy priorities, CNN reports.

Chinese police officers were seen on a joint patrol with their Croatian colleagues on the streets of the capital Zagreb in July of this year.

A Zagreb police official interviewed by the Chinese news agency Xinhua said that patrols are crucial for "protection and attracting foreign tourists."

A 2019 Reuters report said Chinese police officers joined Serbian police on patrol in Belgrade to help deal with the influx of Chinese tourists.

One Serbian official said the Chinese had no authority to make the arrests.

Safeguard Defenders, which searches publicly available official Chinese documents for evidence of human rights abuses, said it had identified four different police jurisdictions of China's Ministry of Public Security active in at least 53 countries, spanning all four corners of the world, allegedly to help Chinese expatriates with their needs abroad.

The NGO claims Italy hosted 11 Chinese police stations, including in Venice and Prato, near Florence.

Beijing has denied having an undeclared police force outside its territory, and its Foreign Ministry told CNN in November: “We hope the relevant parties will stop exaggerating to create tensions. Using this as an excuse to smear China is unacceptable.”

China has argued that the facilities are administrative centers set up to help Chinese expatriates with tasks such as renewing their driver's licenses.

China also said the offices are a response to the covid-19 pandemic, which has left many citizens in other countries unable to renew their identity documents.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the overseas stations are staffed by volunteers, but in the meantime, it has emerged that in some cases, they are people employed on multi-year contracts.

According to CNN, unreported consular activities outside of a country's official diplomatic missions are highly unusual and illegal unless the host country has given its express consent.

The suggestion that there is widespread repression of Chinese citizens in foreign countries comes at a crucial time for a nation grappling with its own unrest at home, amid fatigue from the country's restrictive Covid-19 policies as leader Xi Jinping's third term in power begins, CNN reports.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.

November the 23rd, 2022 - In this edition of How to Croatia, I'll take you through the ins and outs Croatian emergency services, be there a fire, sudden chest pain, a broken down car or an emergency out at sea.

Forget your 999s and your 911s. 112 is the number you’ll need to memorise when it comes to the Croatian emergency services. While we always hope no tragedy of any kind will befall us, the chance is always there. 112 is a free phone number which can be called 24/7 from a fixed phone (landline) or mobile phone to reach the fire department, to call for an ambulance, to contact the police or for rescue purposes.

While dialling 112 will get you through to the emergency services who will then put you through to the service you need. Calls to this number can be answered in English, German, Italian, Hungarian, Slovak & Czech, and Croatian of course. 

The average time to answer a 112 call is a mere five seconds. An SMS (text messaging) service is also available for those with disabilities which may affect their hearing, verbal communication or understanding.

You can also dial the following numbers depending on the Croatian emergency services you require. These are also all free and can be called at any time, from any type of device:

192 - Police

193 - Fire department

194 - Emergency medical help 

195 - Maritime search & rescue 

1987 - Help on the road (HAK)

195 - Help at sea

Things to note

Among the various services offered by HAK, a particularly useful one for tourists is the English-language update on all current road conditions. The service also includes updates on border queues and ferry delays.

During the intensely hot summer months, wildfire breakouts are unfortunately becoming more and more common, especially on the coast and in the tinder dry scrub of the Dalmatian hinterland. It is of paramount importance that rubbish is taken away and disposed of properly. All it takes is a shard of glass glittering in the scorching Croatian sun or a carelessly tossed cigarette butt to set off a blaze that can become rapidly out of all control in such a dry, baked environment. It goes without saying that devastating wildfires can and do occur naturally in such temperatures, but anything we can do to prevent them starting should be in the forefront of our minds.

The Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (in Croatian, Hrvatska Gorska Služba Spašavanja, or HGSS) is also typically kept extremely busy during the height of the tourist season thanks to people attempting to hike up the Biokovo mountain in Primark flip flops, do a bit of free island hopping on a gigantic inflatable flamingo or doughnut, or even try swimming from Split to Brač. Can’t be that far, can it? Oh yes, it can.

HGSS ran a funny campaign a few years ago in a humorous attempt to prevent people from succumbing to their ill-informed, ill-equipped and even more ill-experienced adventurous side, but despite their best efforts, people end up in all sorts of sticky situations with each and every passing year, particularly in summer. Why anyone would ever want to try to climb a rugged, imposing Dalmatian mountain which has probably claimed more than a few lives over the centuries in 3 euro flip flops and armed with half a bottle of flat Coke for hydration in the horrific August heat I don’t know, but maybe I’m the weird one.

For more on the practicalities of moving to and living in Croatia, make sure to keep up with our How to Croatia articles in our lifestyle section.

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.

For more, check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

August the 4th, 2022 - An American policeman working in Split temporarily as part of an exchange of officers the Croatian police have been involved in for years now has praised the sheer safety of the country when compared to his homeland.

As Jutarnji list/SD writes, for the first time this summer season, a police officer from the United States was placed to work temporarily here in Croatia. 30-year-old Jacob Bradley, an American policeman working in Split has been participating in international police cooperation as part of the "Safe Tourist Destination 2022" project.

Jacob has been a police officer for the past eleven years across the pond in America, and during his time he has worked in the migration and drugs department, as well as with the local community, according to a report from Slobodna Dalmacija. In addition to gaining more work experience by coming here, his comparison of police work here in Croatia compared to the USA was particularly interesting.

''Here it's completely different. When I'm patrolling, I don't have a weapon, I don't need it at all. In America, I don't go out in public without a bulletproof vest and a weapon on me. Here I just talk to people, they shake hands with us, and people are generally really happy to see us. Over in America, we deal with more violence and armed conflicts, and here I haven't even heard of such a thing, let alone participated in such an intervention,'' admitted Jacob. Participating in the arrest of a person in Croatia also left a special impression on him.

''Here the police say to someone: 'You need to come with us' and he goes without any resistance. Of course, that doesn't happen with absolutely everyone, but just looking at such a situation was incredible for me. This is a very safe place, one of the places I'd definitely visit with my family,'' the American policeman working in Split said with a smile. He will spend a total of two weeks in the City of Split. He has primarily been helping break down the language barrier between visitors from America and the local population or the police.

''It is however much easier for me to talk to Americans and I very quickly come to a solution to whatever the problem might be and we reach an understanding of what led to it. We're here to be there, to promote the fact that we're here and that Split is a great place to visit. There were several interventions, and the cause of some of them was just a misunderstanding,'' said the police officer from the USA, emphasising that he enjoyed his time spent here and plans to return next year.

The representative of the US Embassy, ​​Amy Davison, emphasised that they are very pleased to have become part of the programme that has been going on for seventeen years now.

''Our participation this year is a continuation of 30 years of cooperation with this country, so this is a very nice way to crown such an anniversary. Jacob told me that he learned a lot here, that's why this experience is valuable for him and we're extremely glad that this cooperation has come about,'' said Davison, adding that the American police officer is grateful for the welcome he had and that he was very well received. Jacob can safely say that Split is his absolute favourite city in all of Croatia.

In addition to this American policeman working in Split, t's worth noting that there are currently 20 officers from ten different countries of the world working on the territory of the Split-Dalmatia County police department at this moment in time, writes Slobodna Dalmacija.

''For us, all their previous experiences are a confirmation that the project is well thought out and that it will be realised this year as well, in a way that gives us the optimum utilisation of what we have planned. They help us build, confirm and maintain the image of Croatia as a safe destination, and this is exactly the goal of this project,'' concluded Slobodan Marendic, head of the Split-Dalmatia police department.

For more, make sure to check out out dedicated lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 4 July 2022 - The National Call Centre for Victims of Crimes (NPC) has won the first European Award on Quality in Youth Volunteering, the Victim and Witness Support Service said on Monday.

The call centre offers free and confidential help and support to victims and witnesses, as well as their families, at the helpline 116 006, where victims and witnesses can receive legal and practical information, contact information of relevant institutions and organisations, and emotional support.

Since 2013, more than 13,000 callers have contacted the call centre.

Over 270 volunteers, most of whom are law, psychology and social work students, have received training to date, and together they have done over 40,000 hours of volunteer work.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 4 Dec, 2021 - Two men, both aged 59, were reported by the police for having organised a COVID rally in Šibenik on 1 December in contravention with the law on public assembly.

The rally of opponents of COVID certificates and anti-vaccine advocates was held in the centre of this Croatian coastal city from 1700 to 2000 hours on 1 December contrary to the relevant law and no anti-epidemic rules had been taken during the gathering.

According to some media reports, the two organisers mobilised an estimated 100 protesters, including a column of several bikers, in Šibenik's central square.

Police investigating several persons suspected of inciting to terrorism

The Police Directorate in Zagreb said on Friday that the law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities were investigating a number of persons suspected of publicly inciting to terrorism.

The police are investigating "actions which incite to undermining Croatia's fundamental constitutional, political, economic or social structures by attacking the physical integrity of other persons and public buildings."

According to media reports, several persons have been arrested, including Marko Francišković and Natko Kovačević, members of an organisation called Pravednik (Righteous).

Francišković spoke at recent protests against COVID certificates in Zagreb and Šibenik.

The police said the investigation was being conducted in Zadar, Šibenik-Knin and Lika-Senj counties as well as in Zagreb and Bjelovar.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 11 Oct 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović on Monday said that he did not have any new information related to videos of police violence against migrants and that it is necessary to wait for the results of the investigation.

"We'll wait and see what the results of the investigation show. Everything that will happen as part of the relevant procedures will be in line with what the police chief said on Friday," Božinović told reporters.

Protecting the borders in line with the law

Asked about responsibility in the chain of command, Božinović underscored that the orders are to protect the state borders in line with the law.

"There cannot be any order that is not in line with the law. As soon as I receive the report from the police directorate, I will forward it to the prime minister, even though we have already discussed all this," said Božinović.

He said that police officers, particularly those assigned to border control, doing one of the most difficult jobs.

He added that there were cases when the police themselves identified cases of police officers overstepping their powers or unlawful conduct.

He said that disciplinary procedures had been underway from before against eight police officers and that 22 cases had been documented and submitted to the State Attorney's Office (DORH).

"When someone individually breaches or oversteps their authority anywhere, there are services in the police directorate and internal controls to conduct investigations and decide on the penalties," he said.

Commenting on an anonymous letter by a police officer who claimed two years ago that an order existed for violent pushbacks, Božinović reiterated that anything that was reported was always investigated. DORH rejected 13 of the 22 cases for lack of evidence, he said.

The anonymous police officer's letter refers to a specific case, with a specific location and date, which previously was not the case, said Božinović and added that a prompt reaction followed the anonymous letter and that the matter was still being investigated.

Božinović also commented on a recent drug incident in the Croatian Army, underscoring that police offices were exceptionally active regarding the fight against drug smuggling.

"The cocaine market is expanding into the general population, which is concerning. We will meet with the anti-drug commission in the next few days. In 2020, 60 kilograms of cocaine were confiscated whereas in the first eight months of this year more than 667 kilograms were seized," he said.

For more on politics, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 29 Sept, 2021 - Addressing the central ceremony of Croatian Police Day, Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Wednesday that the police were "engaged in all areas of national security" and that their role in many other segments was irreplaceable.

During the ceremony held in Zagreb, when the police observed their day on 29 September, the feast of their patron saint, St. Michael, Minister Božinović said that until the end of the term of the current government, all the working processes of the law enforcement authorities would be digitalised.

Police Director Nikola Milina said that police work had focused on detecting tax frauds and evasion, money laundering, and crimes affecting the state budget.

In the first eight months of 2021, the law enforcement authorities had detected 85% more corruption crimes, the number of reports concerning suspected white collar crimes increased by 20%, and the number of detected conspiracies to perpetrate crimes went up by 43%.

All that is not by chance, it is a result of well thought-out strategic planning and our commitment to conducting investigations into economic crimes and corruption, Milina said at the central ceremony.

As for organised crime, so far this year Croatian police officers have arrested 661 people smugglers.

When it comes to the protection of the Croatian and the EU border, it has been established that we have met all the technical and legal requirements which has made our border the best protected external border, he added.

Milina said that significant results had been achieved in raising cyber security, and that the police were ready to respond to all the challenges and threats stemming from the use of new technologies.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

September 22, 2021 - The missing person Peruća Lake search sadly ended with the discovery of the body of Dominik Branimir Bilobrk who went missing last Saturday.

The four-day search for the 24-year-old Dominik Branimir Bilobrk sadly ended with the worst outcome possible.

As TV network RTL reports, police confirmed that the missing young man was found dead close to the place where he left to swim through Peruća lake, an artificial lake in Dalmatia. A little over an hour away from Split by car, Peruća is the third biggest lake in the entire country.

„The boat went to pull him over and bring him to land where investigation and identifying of the victim will take place. The family is already here. They await in sorrow“, said RTL on its website on Wednesday afternoon.

As Jutarnji List reported, Dominik Branimir Bilobrk from Obrovac Sinjski (half an hour drive away from Peruća) disappeared on Saturday. At the time of his disappearance, he wore short camo cargo pants, a short-sleeved black T-shirt, and black sneakers. The description said he was of „stringer physical build, “ and he drove away from his house in a Fiat brand car.

Big search for Bilobrk started on Monday morning around Peruća lake and its surroundings. Police, along with the Croatian Mountain Rescue (HGSS), from Split's station, and HGSS divers from across Croatia joined the search to find the missing 24-year-old. Dogs, drones and boats were used to find the missing young man. Along with professionals, ordinary citizens and Bilobrk's neighbors took part in the search too. Dogs, drones, and boats were used in hopes of finding the missing young man.

Following the interview of HGSS's search leader Ante Jukić, Slobodna Dalmacija wrote on Monday that both the car and the clothes dropped a kilometer away belonged to Bilobrk.

„Every eye on the field helps. The search is specific because we are on a suspected minefield, so we have to pay attention“, said Jukić on Monday, explaining how both civilians and professional troops must be careful in that area.
The finding of th clothes and cars shifted the focus of the search to the lake Peruća. Unfortunately, the search ended with a sad ending, as the exact reasons for Bilobrk's departure remain unknown.

Nestali.hr, a governmental site where Croatians can report missing people, states that in the last 23 years, there have been more than 24 000 missing people reported.
The majority of these cases, around 70%, are related to the war in the 90s.

For more news from Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.