CLAN

Kaunas Police CLAN

WHAT WE DO

CLAN – Continuous Learning for Adults with Needs

134649-LLP-1-2007-1-IT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP
Grant Agreement 2007-3569/001-001
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible
for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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The structure of the clan.

The interviewed employees were from the Subdivisions of the public police in
Kaunas:

Service of traffic supervision-7 persons

Service of public order -14 persons

Combined patrol team- 6 persons

Juveniles centre of Social care and prevention -5 persons

ANALYSIS OF THE WORK SCHEDULE

Typically all employees in the police in Lithuania work in shifts, 3 shifts (on a rota
basis) for policemen1 shift + duties(on a rota basis) for managerial staff
including night hours.

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Also they have their individual working-hour plans.According to these plans there
is a great difference in the amount of working hours and days off.

*Generally shifts changes every day or every second day;

*Very often people work night hours before days off ;

*Their working hours vary according to their job requirements for a certain period
of time;

*The duties or job profile is also on rotation basis;

*Anyone can be asked to come to work even if it is his/her day off which
implies to be at work during the weekends or bank holidays too.

Their free days can be on Monday or on any other week day. But if there is a
certain emergency event in the town and more police forces have to be involved,
they have to be at work even on his/her day off (they are compensated later).

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Certainly, people have a possibility to change their schedule on an important
event for a family or an individual ( wedding, furneral, illness and consultations
at doctor's etc.)

Though time table is too much flexible for this profession but in the long run they
manage somehow to make equal working conditions to all workers.It was noticed
also during the interviews because none of them complained of being overused in
work or felt that his days off are not compensated.

PERCEPTION OF SOCIAL BARRIERS

It is hardly possible for the employees in the police to plan their private and
social life activities or plan holidays in advance as most often these are
occurance-dependent. When it comes to situations where both a wife and a
husband are employed in the police, the private life demands of such a family are
often disregarded.

It goes without saying that the main aspect of this profession and work is
communication between the society and the police professionals. Regrettably,
there is little trust in the police from citizens, as often it is the case that people
have contacts with officers in situations of violation of regulations and law (on
roads, in dealing with property) and in crime. Very often this sort of
communication results either in a strict warning, imposing fines, law enforcement,
custody or establishing offences, therefore all these produce negative emotions in
people. Even when the people are offenders themselves, a bad reputation of the
police officer is being spread among population. Also, there are lots of crimes
that are unrevealed and criminals not punished (certainly due to different
circumstances), which also contributes a lot to the negative image and attitude
towards the police. The police officers revealed that even working with children at
school they perceive children’s negative attitude and preconceived mindset. The
policemen believe that this bad image has been created to a greater extent by
the media which seek for the negative and sensational as well as by the
individuals who had unpleasant personal contacts with police officers, such as in
traffic events, cases of hooliganism, etc. Also, people/offenders seek for privileges
in such occurrences while police officers have to turn to the law.

Journal POLICIJA (police) is the periodical that is published twice a month

presents problems encountered in the police system of the country and
prevention of crime, discusses hot issues of social life regarding the police work,

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describes dismal situation with accidents on roads, notifies awards granted to the
officers or describes events initiated by policemen to bring the population and the
police together. After having read those articles we assumed that the journal is
much more oriented towards citizens ( mainly to shape a positive attitude
towards the police) rather than police professionals , and this opinion was
supported by the interviewees. They said they would welcome articles ( or a
journal) referring to their professional matters and informing them about the
news in the police. This has led to the assumption that most information about
the police must be confidential and inaccessible to the public, which maybe in its
turn demonstrates mistrust to each other.

ANALYSIS OF CRITICALITIES DUE TO A SPECIFIC PROFESSION

Social obstacles can be divided into two main categories: internal and external.

internal external
.1 Inefficient work organization 1.Shortage in employment

2.Shortage of technologies 2.The profession of the policeman

should gain
3.Small social benefits
more respect among population
4.Professional constrains
3.Poor opportunity to go on training
5.Poor knowledge of foreign languages abroad (lack of foreign language skills)

6.Lack of information about social 4.Week professional social

activities organizations

7.Forbiden extra work ( except 5.Lack of government support to raise

education) the status of profession

no possibilities to earn additional 6.Sometimes lack of professionals to

salary implement laws and instructions,
programs and other means in order to
8.Forbiden communication with media
gain more respect for profession
without a prior consent of their
authorities 7.Lack of public interest for their work
( except extreme situations)
9.Partying in public is considered
discrediting them and violate the

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professional ethics 8.Mainly negative media reports

10.Forbiden participation in political life

11.Low individual motivation

With regaining the Independence in 1990s, there was great agiotage about
choosing career in the police, as it was the substitution for the soviet militia.
Salaries to policemen were made bigger and more social benefits provided (free
accommodation, charge-free transport, etc.). However, today these ambitions are
over, there is shortage in employment, and the police departments look for ways
to recruit more people to this career. And the wish that this profession could gain
more respect among population was expressed by the interviewees.

Even having been constrained so much in many aspects of their profession, the
policemen tend to respect professional obligations and, when asked about
possibly changing their career to something with fewer restrictions, they
answered they would stick to their employment understanding their role and
commitment to the society. In conclusion it could be assumed that inside their
profession the policemen are more or less able to reconcile their professional
work with leading a normal social life..

GROWING IN THE CLAN – NEEDS FOR LEARNING

Professional training that is typically planned and selected by the Ministry of

Interior or any police department authorities is conducted fairly often. Within a
year trainings are planned 2-3 times, and every professional is supposed to
participate in them on a regular basis.Trainings are organized mainly in
professional, technological and language spheres. The disciplines mentioned by
the interviewees are the following:

Professional sphere Introduction into new

laws & regulations

Peculiarities of the
Schengen area

Juvenile delinquency and

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 justice

Prevention of drug
dealing and addiction

Safety at school

A new approach to
violence against women

Kaliningrad area transit

First aid skills

Physical and
psychological training for
adequacy

in crime situations

Technological sphere Informatics

Language Foreign language teaching

.( the Provisions of Schengen Convention are applied in Lithuania from 21

December 2007 )

With regard to globalization process, the interviewees pointed out that the EU
legislation is above the national (September 1, 2004 Lithuania joined Europol
Convention and its protocols). However, in some cases it is not best suited for the
region and sometimes inappropriate for the Lithuanian situation.

In the departments first aid skills training and physical and psychological training
for adequacy in crime situations as well as foreign language teaching take place
continially. However, mostly employees are forced to participate in the trainings
without willingness or choice. They said they would prefer to be instructed more
about professional ethics and communication (as they deal with people in their
work and more focus on developing social skills is necessary), trained in
psychology, civics, public realations and more language courses are absolutely
indispensible. Many the officers believe that, at least partially, any of these
trainings can add to their personal, social and civic development.

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It has been reported that no specific tools or methods for learning/ development
are employed or known by the interviewers.

ICT instruments

Throughout Lithuania the police has got the Internet connection and
communication ( though in some replies it was mentioned as insufficient), local
intranet and every department has designed its website. However, what regards
free use of the Internet at work, it is absolutely restricted if a policeman is
having access to the police database . Certainly it is for the sake of security
against spreading police information. For the employees therefore it is possible to
use WWW only at home, but obviously sharing this access with the family
members. This allows little time for an individual to do all the browsing he/she
needs.

Typically at home the policemen make use of the Internet in searching for
information, reviewing news, for communication and playing games but very
rarely do anything for professional purposes. Having this sort of situation about
using IC technologies and yet claiming that they are „their window to the world“,
the police people are restricted in realising themselves as individuals, who
pursue their needs to learn and develop. Generally among the causes that
enhance the quest for knowledge and learning, the interviewees mentioned
personal hobbies, fighting the routine, worthwhile communication and curiosity
for innovations.

The interviewees reported that their families demonstrate hostility when they
disregard the time that should be allocated to household chores, family
communication, raising children and discussing family matters or problems, and
instead giving it to computer work/browsing. But when ICT is considered and
accepted as a leisure time facility for the whole family during holidays or
vacations, this hostility disappears.

Training needs expressed by interviewees can be divided into the following

spheres

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Professional sphere Professional ethics

Communication to develop more social

skills

Cross cultural management

Psychology

Public relations

Civics
Technological sphere Innovations in technology

Innovations in technical means used in

foreign countries in their profession

Social sphere Integration skills

Competence in understanding

non- verbal communication /body

language

Time management

Knowledge about society

Human activity

Cross cultural signs(language of signs)

Mastering languages

Sports and health

Speaking about the time they can allot to personal learning and development,
they reported doing it partly at their work( if it‘s staying in the office on duty),
making use of lunch breaks, on weekends and holidays and also at the time after
work.

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Indicators of Success

As all interviewees expressed understanding their role and commitment to the

society some presumptions for success can be drawn. They are:

- Growing increase of professional requirements from employers and the

need in society for qualified service;
- Governmental and Global promotion of personal development.
- Individual motivation for self-development
- The acknowledgment of profession’s situation in the labour market;
- Career possibilities;
- Understanding social barrier and readiness to overcome it;
- Believe that trainings can add to their personal, professional, social and
civic development.

The project idea to introduce more flexible self development paradigm are very
challenging to all foreign partners and clan members. A new idea offers new
learning environment which expand borders and deepen the knowledge going
further into globalization processes.

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