Police If you are the victim of a crime while in the Czech Republic, don’t expect the police to be of much help. As pawns of the previous regime, the police were never taken very seriously in communist Czechoslovakia. Since the revolution, they have earned a reputation for being racist, corrupt, xenophobic, and incompetent. They are not well respected by the Czechs, to say the least, and are definitely not regarded as serious crimefighters or protectors of the public, and just barely pass the test when it comes to being keepers of law and order. Don’t expect them to be friendly or helpful at all – they’re not the people you want to go up to and ask for directions to the Charles Bridge. In fact, the police are best to be avoided. Cops here are lazy, unfriendly, and corrupt. They will probably keep you waiting for a long time, unless it’s an emergency (i.e. the burglars are in your hotel room right at that moment.) By law, they are required to provide you with an interpreter; in practice, this is often very lax. Case in point: When my apartment was robbed and I had to answer questions from the police shortly after my arrival here a few years ago, we took a stroll to the hotel across the street and had the front desk receptionist serve as the interpreter. When it came time to fill out the police report the following week, I went to the trouble of bringing my own interpreter with me. And the report itself? Instead of using a computer, the officer typed it out on an electric typewriter. The fact that, in 2001, the Czech police were still using typewriters instead of computers, this says a lot about the police in this country. Expect your dealings with them to be unpleasant, shady, and ineffectual. The only kind of crime the police are generally good at solving are major violent crimes (i.e. murders.) Because this is such a relatively small country, it makes it pretty difficult for murderers to hide out. Police ties to organized crime in smaller towns and villages, however, are reprehensible. But this shouldn’t have any effect on visitors to Prague. For emergencies, dial 158. The main police station, located on the corner of Na Perstyne and Bartolomejska, is open 24 hours daily.
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