Agents can earn more as private agents

By Charlie Szabo

The staffing problems are so critical now, officials say response times may
be slowed significantly.

The National Police, which employs about 31,000 officers, is hoping to fill
an additional 2,000 patrolmen and investigator positions while bolstering
retention.

Officials blame low wages for the mass exodus. Trained law enforcement
officials can pick up jobs with the growing number of private security
agencies.

"We've lost many highly qualified investigators to the private sector. It's
very hard to replace them," says Brig. Gen. Laszlo Bartos, human resources
director at police headquarters.

Trained law enforcement agents can triple their salaries by taking a job as
a private investigator or with a private security agent, according to Andras
Zsinka, assistant human resources director at the National Police. There are
currently hundreds of such private agencies operating in Hungary.

In order to make National Police jobs more attractive, officers were recently
given a 24-percent payrise, bringing a patrolman's pay to 40,000 forints
($296)[£200] a month. "I'm very optimistic that the salary increase will
help," Bartos said.

Police are putting in a lot of overtime to make up the shortfall in uniformed
officer. "Unfortunately the only way to keep up the same level of police
alert, we have to schedule staff to do more overtime," Bartos said. "The good
news is that we were able to expand our training facilities, so from now on
about 1,200 students will be able to graduate every year from the police
academy."

Car Thefts

Some 12,000 cars were stolen in Hungary last year,