Mayors were outraged on hearing that Limassol municipality had been served with an invoice for €45,000 for the policing of Sunday’s carnival parade. The Union of Municipalities expressed its disapproval at a House committee meeting on Wednesday while its chairman – Larnaca mayor Andreas Vyras – not only railed against the move during a radio show on Thursday morning but also stated that the amount would not be paid. The police, charging a local authority for policing was unheard of in Cyprus said Vyras, adding that there was no provision in the law for such a charge.

Deputy police chief Yiannakis Georgiou explained that the police had made this decision because of budget constraints. There were only limited funds for police overtime and ways had to be found to cover these costs, he said. It was a legitimate point. If the government had cut the force’s budget for overtime pay how would the officers put on duty on a Sunday be paid? Should they be expected to do extra hours every week for free, when asked to police a public event at which there would be thousands of people?

The representative of the police branch of the Isotita union fully supported the police command’s decision, explaining that in 2024 dozens of gatherings required a police presence, but the amount allocated for these in the budget did not cover the costs. The police command explained the reasoning behind charging for the policing of social events. Events were split into those that were of a celebratory, artistic character and those that were demonstrations/protests. For the former, payment is sought from the organisers, while for the latter the overtime cost is covered by the police budget because such events could affect public order and the safety of citizens.

Mayor Vyras argued that with this logic, the police should also charge the football clubs for policing matches. Strictly speaking, football matches qualify as non-protest events for which there should be a charge for policing; this would be an incentive for clubs to crack down on the troublemakers among their fans. This being Cyprus, the clubs would never pay the policing bills and build up more debts to the authorities. In an ideal world, however, the cost of policing matches should be paid by the home side.

Regarding the Limassol carnival parade, which will be held on Sunday, what will happen? We suspect there will be a sizeable police presence, but the Limassol municipality will refuse to pay the bill for the policing. It would be a test case. In the future, the police would simply demand payment up front or refuse to police events like carnival parades, marathons – there are a couple scheduled next month. The organisers would then have to hire the services of a private security firm to ensure everything goes smoothly. Whether the security firm would charge more or less than the police nobody knows.

It has to be understood that everything has a cost and that the state has no obligation to offer services free of charge, especially for events such as a carnival parade at which there is no public order issue, and the crowd management could be handled by private security.