The batch of measures announced last week by the police to tackle organised crime and football violence either don’t go far enough or will fall flat, an ex-cop tells the Cyprus Mail. What’s needed is a deep shakeup of the police force, especially in key positions – but that may be easier said than done.

The backdrop to the announcement of the measures, in brief: on January 16 a public prosecutor’s car was set ablaze in Paphos. Four weeks earlier, a bomb had been planted underneath the car of another Paphos-based state counsel outside her home in Anavargos. And about two weeks ago, a police officer’s car was also set on fire. On January 15, on a busy Nicosia road, shots were fired at a car while the driver’s son went into a shop. His 15-year-old daughter was in the back seat. No one was injured.

The new Minister of Justice and Public Order, Marios Hartsiotis, was rather unfortunate with his timing, as earlier on Monday January 15, during a visit to police headquarters in Nicosia, he stated that his ‘first priority’ was to restore people’s ‘sense of security’. He had been in the job for less than a week.

More bad timing followed – on Tuesday, January 23 the minister said 500 police officers would be hired to beef up the force. The announcement came amid criticism that the previously announced measures to tackle rising organised crime on the island were insufficient. Although the ministry subsequently clarified that the 500 number referred to planned hires to fill vacancies, not “new” police officers.

But the very next day – January 24 – all hell broke loose at a cup football game in Limassol, with pitched battles between the two opposing groups of fans. Just days earlier, the football association (CFA) had announced a blanket ban on all away fans for all competitive games for the rest of the season.

The measures – effective immediately – announced last Monday were increasing the number of officers working on the ‘front line’; ramping up pedestrian and vehicle patrols across the country; boosting police units dealing with financial crime; enhancing financial investigations to identify and seize ill-gotten proceeds.

“Embarrassing,” says Sotiris Charalambous, a retired police officer, of the football violence taking place in Limassol.

“The justice minister announces the measures, and the next day the hooligans riot in Limassol. And 300 cops couldn’t handle it?”

Charalambous, who served as assistant to the chief of police in the early 2000s, points out that the police’s chief of operations was absent from the Limassol football game.

“Unacceptable. He ought to have been there to run things personally, and to take personal responsibility.”

The former cop uses this example to make his pitch:

“The minister – who’s new on the job, so let’s cut him some slack – must interfere with the restructuring of the police and impose a sense of security and confidence among officers, which doesn’t exist today unfortunately.

“Restructuring the force means appointing the best to certain positions.”

Another source, who preferred to remain anonymous, tells us of grumbles within the police force about the current leadership. The source described the deputy chief of police as an “empty uniform, hiding away in his office” and Police Chief Stelios Papatheodorou as “weak”, lacking experience in crime-fighting or administration.

Asked to comment on the ban on away fans, Charalambous waves it off.

“You’re still going to get trouble. The visiting team’s fans will simply gather outside the stadium making a nuisance of themselves. Then they might take their frustration out on parked cars and maybe even nearby houses. Organised fans are controlled – and financed – by the clubs. The latter will encourage the fans to go to the venues and cause trouble, putting pressure on authorities until the rules are changed again so that they’re allowed back in the stadiums.”

In his view, the police need to take responsibility for sports games.

“So, I think the football association went for the easy solution – the fan ban is a copout,” he says.

Andreas Kapardis, emeritus professor of criminology at the University of Cyprus, advocates for a “multi-front approach” to tackling juvenile delinquency and anti-social behaviour.

“We need a mix of enforcement and deterrence…time we got away from simplistic approaches”; he offers.

Overall, though, the expert gives the thumbs-up to the measures announced by the government.

Kapardis recalls a programme implemented years ago, called Communities That Care (CTC).

“Our own experience in Cyprus shows that a multi-front approach is the most effective. This is where authorities as a strategy tackle the problem at the local level – the family and the local community, acting in unison. It was implemented successfully in Nicosia in 2006.

“We can do this again – employ part-time specialists, offer problematic kids a range of activities – like sports – for free. The specialists would also visit families in the evenings when they’re home.”

What of the other aspect, organised crime? Here Charalambous deviates from the consensus, as it were.

“In Cyprus we don’t have organised crime per se – ever seen a lawyer, a judge, a customs officer charged with cooperating with criminals?”

He goes on: “What, because someone gunned down Alexoui [the alias for Alexis Mavromichalis, a gangland figure murdered last October]? These are gangsters, fighting over turf. Did they shoot a peaceful civilian? No. Gangsters going at each other is not organised crime.”

Charalambous is what you might call a ‘cop’s cop’ – hardcore. In March 2004, when he was assistant to the police chief and aged 54, he spotted a bank robbery in progress, got out of the car and – with the help of two others – wrestled the two perpetrators to the ground. The robbers were carrying a pistol and a semiautomatic weapon, which turned out to be fakes – though Charalambous didn’t know that at the time.

The former senior officer stresses that unless the justice minister “fixes the police and raises the performance level, no measures – and no matter how many cops you put on the streets – will work”.

He adds that serious crime is “the same as before” – but it’s law enforcement that’s lacking.

But this didn’t happen overnight, so why all the fuss now?

“Maybe part of it is artificial – because a state attorney’s vehicle was targeted and so forth. That gets attention. But can we honestly say that the average person in Cyprus feels unsafe?”

The data – as collated by the police – suggests that some types of serious crime are on the rise. In 2020, the number of filed cases of ‘serious crime’ came to 3,984. The next year it went up to 4,429. And in 2022 the figure logged was 5,402.

Data for 2023 is available only for the first six months. There were six murders, eight attempted murders, 17 rapes, three attempted rapes, 81 arsons, 36 robberies and extortion, 564 cases involving illegal drugs, and 506 burglaries.

By comparison, the data for the first half of 2022 is: four murders, eight attempted murders, 29 rapes, 81 arsons, 70 robberies and extortion, 554 cases involving illegal drugs, and 524 burglaries.

Likewise, Kapardis urges caution when one speaks of organised crime.

“The term means different things to different people – either two or three criminals acting in concert, or you go with the FBI definition – criminals, corrupt cops and corrupt politicians in cahoots.”

Asked whether in Cyprus the FBI definition applies, the expert demurs: “I can’t say for sure…but it only takes one rotten apple to undermine law enforcement.”

As far as serious crime goes, Kapardis opines that it’s up.

“But the question is why. The catalyst are illegal drugs and gambling – a great deal of money to be made.”

He’s got several ideas on how to ameliorate the situation. For one, let the justice ministry hire some criminologists.

Also, due to the changing nature of crime, get the police to hire foreign nationals. “You could register them as special constables. For example, today how many people in the police speak Arabic? We need to start thinking outside the box.”