Opinions/experience about the Polish Police

What are your experiences/opinions about professionalism of the Polish Police force? In Ireland (Republic) the Garda are generally held in high regard, I think that the opposite can be said in the UK though. What are you thoughts?

In the UK the regional forces seem OK but the Metropolitan aren't that great.

Polish police isn't good ... it is true. After comunism era it is highly disrespected occupation, most of normal people don't want to work as policeman because it is shame. Now it changes but still ...

Do you think they are corrupt?

less than it was in the past and it is much harder to give bribe but for exapmle sometimes instead of paying fine for road Police some people give small bribe. It changes and last time it isn't so common but still we have to work on it. Police started to check Police and we go in good direction and maybe in 5 years time we will have German/Scandinavian standarts here. I must say that situation is much better than it was.

what is the nickname for the police in Poland?Is it something like "mudmen" and if so,why?

Psy = Dogs
it is slang of young uneducated people ;)

In London, the cops are excellent at catching speeding motorists and issuing tickets, but pretty useless at real crime.

Glina (clay) for a single cop, gliny (clays) for plural. They used to have badges on their collars which resembled a pine, and since pines grow on such soils, thus the name. I think however it's a kind of a dodgy explanation.

I must say that I was under this impression for many years of living here, but recently I had to go to the Police station and be interviewed because of some bureaucratic cock up in the local driving office here in Pulawy, and they wanted to prosecute me for their mistake. (anyway that's a long story)

I was pleasantly surprised on how friendly and helpful they were and soon sorted out my problem and even reprimanded the local driving office for ever bring this to this stage.

Maybe this is an isolated case, but I was very impressed with the way they dealt with everything.

as I said ;) situation changes. Last time I had to do something with Police was 3 years ago. I have seen in TV that they do something to make it better and people say that Police works better but it is still not what we would like to have here ;)

What sort of money do they typically earn?

I think average is about 1200 PLN -2500 PLN netto (bad) now I think they will get more. They have a lot of different bonuses so it is better than it looks but maybe here is the problem because people in comerce earn much better money ...

I think you can apportion this every country in the world.
I called my mother in the UK this morning and she told me that the Police came last night to her neighbour because the alarm was set off and someone was trying to break into their house; the Police arrived 40 mins later, shone a few torches around the house managed to set the alarm off again and then buggered off after 5 mins of being there lol

They probably had to attend the scene of an urgent parking violation!

lol....

You know it takes a lot of time to walk around the city and write everyone's name in those little books...and a lot of pens too!

On the other hand their Armed Response Unit types look brutally effective...I would not want to be a mafia guy when they bust in.

Or a Brazilian electrician

The same goes for NYC and throughout the US.


LOL. So True. LOL

In Surrey we have the Surrey Constabulary and it is rubbish. I have not had much to do with the Polish police but I have heard that it is quite corrupt and they take bribes for speeding offenses. I have a pair of Polish handcuffs as a souvenir given to me in Bydgość many years ago. Maybe I could use them to tie up the hands of some of the female Forum members?!!

There seems to be a fair amount of respect (fear) of the cops in Poland. They're pretty good at handing out Mandats for just about anything.

Also there seems to be quite a large prison population, custodial sentences here are very harsh for what would be considered minor offences in the UK and Ireland.

i have only good things to report with the polish police, they weren't 100% "by the book" but they did their job sensibly like they were actually thinking, not like a lot of cops i've come across back home.

now, the traffic quasi-police, y'know, the kind that aren't issued sidearms, those jokers are a different story altogether.

is it joke ?


I don't think so


sometimes it is more harsh and sometimes it isnt

Michal your sadist fantasies, should be well kept to yourself, please don't creep the female members out!!

thanks UK... I think we all agree that michal has been having deliusions and needs
to be put on some type of reality pills..

Polish police are much more professional now than in the 90's, but still have a lot to go. Corruption is slowly being eradicated. My cousin (a former cop in the abw) now works in a anti corruption unit aimed at catching corrupt police officers. He has caught hundreds of crooked cops by using hidden cameras and having his fellow officers pose as speeding civilians. Something like 7,000 were fired for taking brides in 1 or 2 years (can't remember the time frame he told me).

Nothing to be proud of, but i did try to bride 2 police officers into not writing me tickets between wroclaw/czestochowa, but unfortunately they did not take the bait:) My other cousins have also been unsuccessful in briding as well...

why don't you tie your hands? it would prevent you from posting garbage.

Both you AND you cousin tried to marry Police officers and they refused? Bummer...

If this is anything to go by