Four Romanian policemen from the Road Police were recently temporarily sent to UK to work alongside British, Polish and Lithuanian police in combating traffic violation coming from the three Eastern European countries.

The collaboration has already picked interest from the British media: BBC run a short story showing one of the Romanian cops, Constantin Hoza from the Highway Patrol, working alongside a British colleague. Their collaboration shortened the time to investigate traffic violation made by Romanians down to five minutes, from a previous two hours, as, when faced with the Police many Romanians say they do not know English. Checking documents for Romanians who break traffic legislation can take as much as days for the British Police.

The Daily Mail tabloid also run a story about the collaboration between the policemen from the four countries, highlighting that the joint work can help dismantle larger crime organizations, as criminals use the road network to avoid being caught.

The traffic operation - codenamed Operation Trivium - is being coordinated at the Tally Ho police training centre in Edgbaston, Birmingham. The foreign police are currently based in a call center and give their British counterparts quick access to their intelligence files. Policemen who stop cars registered in Romania, Poland or Lithuania can find out shortly if any of the occupants of the cars are wanted persons in their home countries.

The operation however was a short term one, as it took place between July 15 and July 19, but if affective, it could be extended. Mid-term, the teams already made over 50 arrests.

The British media has been reporting about crime committed by Romanians in UK, highlighting the dangers which might appear once UK will open its borders for workers from Romania and Bulgaria in the beginning of 2014.  The topic has been a sensitive one for the two countries.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: West Midlands Police)