1. Police and education Female students and future work for the Police
Dina Tarāne
Deputy Director of
State Police College

2. There are 2070371 inhabitants in Latvia*
1 police officer
per 300 inhabitants
According to the statistics there are approx.. 2 mln. Inhabitants in Latvia.
This means that we have 1 police officer per 300 inhabitants.
*Central Bureau for Statistics / Population census in 2011

3. Number of employees in the State Police 7000 persons
Total number of the staff in the State police is 7000,
6100 or 87% are police officers and only 13% or civil staff.
Speaking about gender stucture –
about 35% of the police officers are women.
Within the civil staff female employees are 73%.
It means that all together – female police officers and civil employees are about 40%

4. Structure of the State police
Chief of the State police
Riga region police dept.
Kurzeme region police dept.
Vidzeme region police depart.
Zemgale region police dept.
Latgale region police dept.
Central Criminal police department
Central Administrative department
Central Public order police department
State police college
Human resources dept.
Finance dept.
Internal control dept.
Forensic department
Shortly about the structure of the State police.
The State police is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior.
There are 3 central departaments – the Criminal police, Public order police and Administrative departaments, which are subordinated to the Chief of the State police and organize and coordinate activities under their competency.
The Forensic departament is also subordinated to the Chief of the State police.
Everyday police work is orginized in 5 Region police daprtaments.
The civil staff are employed in the Human resources, Financial department and partly Administrative and Forensic departments.

5. STRUCTURAL POSITION OF POLICE EDUCATION IN LATVIA
The Ministry of
the Interior
The Ministry of
Education
and Science
State Police
Now I will give you a short overview about police recruiting process and training system.
The State police college was established on 2006 on the base of the Police School and last year we celebrated our 10th anniversary.
The college is the only institution in Latvia, responsible for the police education. It is an independent educational institution under the umbrella of the State police.
State Police
College

6. Persons can join the police force, if he/she:
Latvian citizen
18-40 years old
Physical fitness
Health
Psychological characteristics
No criminal background
Not found legally incapacitated
at least secondary education
Latvian language
Any citizen of the Latvian Republic aged 18 to 40 can join the police fulfilled the following criteria:
- physical, health and psycological conditions
- no criminal history
- not to be legally incapacitated
- has a knowledge of latvian language in apropriate level that is necessary for duties
- has at least secondary education

7. Higher Education Establishments Professional Education
POLICE EDUCATION
Higher Education Establishments
State
Police
First Level Higher
Professional Education
Vocational education
A person can join the police service in two ways.
The first way - applicant with secondary education who fulfills the mentioned criteria goes to the State Police College and after 10 months of vocational studies gets a police qualification and the rank of corporal.
After that police officers have the opportunity to continue studies at the Police College and after 2,5 years of full-time studies or 3 years of part-time studies, get the first level professional education and a college diploma in the qualification “Police work” and to be appointed to the junior level officer position.
Therefore the State police have an agreement with one of the Latvian higher education institutions, where police officers can also continue their education and get a bachelor diploma after which they could be appointed to the middle level officer position.
The second way is for applicants with a university degree (bachelor as well as master) - if they fulfill mentioned criteria they can join the police service and must undergo the six month professional development education program “Basics of Police work” in the State Police College after what to be appointed to the junior or middle level officer position.
Professional
development
education
programmes
and
adult
non-formal
education programmes
Initial training
Higher Education
Secondary Education

8. The State Police College implements education programs:
1st level professional higher education program “Police Work”
2,5 years – full-time studies
3 years – part-time studies
Vocational program
“Police Work”
10 months – full-time or part-time studies
Professional development education program “Basics of Police Work” for students with higher education
6 months
More than 60 adult non-formal education programmes and professional development programmes
(from 6 till 640 lessons)
The college is carrying out the following programs:
- the vocational education programme „Police work”
- the first level higher Professional education programme
“Police work” in four specializations
- 6 month Professional development education program “Basics of Police work” for applicants with higher education
- More then 60 other adult nob-formal education and Professional development programs
From the very begining of studies in the college, cadets are joined police service and during the studying process they receive a salary and are granted with the same social garanties as police officers.

9. Vocational program “Police Work” (full-time) (%)
Now I will offer you some numbers about gender structure of college’ s cadets and police officers by services and positions.
Female are 47% of all full-time cadets, it is quite impressive comparing to 35% of female police officers.
The numbers of female cadets in different education programs impact the police gender structure by positions and services. In the vocational program we have about 37% of female cadets, after graduation they can get a constable position in the public order police, but majority of females choose the possibility to continue education in the college’s higher education program.

10. 1st Level Professional Higher Education program “Police Work” (full-time) (%)
Half of the first level higher education program cadets are women, they generally choose the public order police or the investigators’ specialisations.
After graduation they are appointed to the junior level officer positions in the public order and criminal police.

11. Professional development education program “Basics of Police Work” (for persons with university diploma) (%)
About 67% of persons with the university degree who applied to the police are women.
After this program they become the junior or middle level officers in the public order police or investigators.
One of the reason the majority of applicants to the police are women is because the salaries aren’t enought attractive to men due to the society’s preconceptions about men’s and women’s incomes.

12. Female/male by services (%)
In the present slde you can observe the gender structure in different services – the criminal police, public order plice and other services.
The Investigation units are the part of the criminal police and the majority of the investigators are female.
The Traffic police and the patrolling police are the part of the public order police and are mostly men’s occupated and this factor impact the gender structure of the public order police.

13. Female/male by position (%)
Speaking about the gender structure by positions, I would like to turn attention to the some factors –
The constable’s positions are mostly in the patrolling and traffic police and this impact the small number of the females.
The main proportion of the female officers are in the junior and middle level positions, where it is about 45-46% in average.
Moving to the higher level positions the number of female officers are dicreasing dramatically, reaching only 15% in the leadership positions which is the smallest number between all levels.
Male and female proportion by positions partly are reflecting the gender proportion in the college.

14. Evaluating the mentioned above, I would like to underline that in some areas we still have challenges, especially in “female” and “ male” jobs and positions, and there is a space for improvement.
Thank you very much for your attention and if you have any questions I am ready to answer.

15. Thank you for your attention!

16. How many (in %) female police officers are within the State Police of Latvia?
b.45%
c.25%
d.50%

17. What kind of the architecture style is typical for Riga city center?  
a.Art Nouveau
b.Baroque
c.Art deco
d.Medieval