Law Enforcement in Slovakia

Law enforcement in Slovakia is divided among various agencies under the Slovak ministries of Interior, Justice, Traffic, Defense, Finance and local governments within the Republic. The Slovak Secret Service (Slovenská informačná služba), one out of four secret services in the country, also lists among its tasks those usually reserved for the police force, for example fighting against organized crime and computer crime, Slovakia also features voluntary police without any extra rights.

Civil policing responsibilities are shared between the state and local level: in addition to the Slovak police Force (Policajný zbor Slovenskej republiky), various municipal police forces exist. Other forces include the Military police, Railway police, Finance police, various special forces units divided between numerous ministries and others. As of 2012, there were 21.407 state policemen serving in Slovakia with 2.500 municipal policemen and 750 voluntary citizens which is three times the number of policemen in the comparatively similar Finland.

Members of law enforcement agencies in Slovakia are known for poor performance, for example, in 2010 alone Slovak law enforcement agencies caused two high-profile international blunders, both times endangering an innocent person in the process. The three most numerous crimes committed by law enforcement members are according to daily Pravda: corruption, obstruction of justice and overstepping their competences. Every Slovak citizen older than 15 years is obliged by law to carry the Slovak identity card at all times except very close to home, and be able to identify themselves to any of the numerous police forces.