Interior Minister details “largest rearmament in years”, re-equipment of law enforcement in Parliament address

The Interior Ministry carried out the “most large-scale rearmament” of law enforcement units in years in 2021, Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri told the Georgian Parliament on Thursday while also revealing other initiatives of equipping interior services with modern hardware.

Gomelauri said parts of the Ministry’s special force unit, Patrol Police and Tbilisi Police Departments had been equipped with modern Glock service weapons, while unveiling moves for “upgrading, re-equipment and capacity-building” in the police force that he said would continue in 2022.

Delivery of police services to citizens of the country had also been refined and improved in 2021, the Minister said, adding the Patrol Police Department had purchased new computers, camcorders and breath analysers for law enforcers.

He also announced upcoming reforms aimed to improve access to police services, with a unified service centre scheduled to be launched in the central Georgian town of Gori, in addition to Patrol Police service centres in the Black Sea coastal city of Batumi, western city of Kutaisi and the eastern town of Telavi.

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Gomelauri also talked about a new electronic platform for traffic accident registration, created and piloted to digitise the process, as well as the launch of a unified database. The Minister said the system had been designed in accordance with European Union regulation standards.

Reforms are planned to be carried out to improve road traffic safety in the country, Gomelauri told legislators, highlighting the mandatory regulation requiring driver license tests to be carried out in spaces of actual traffic movement. The change is expected to come into force on April 25 for cars and on November 7 for other categories of vehicles.

Changing vehicle licence plates remotely will become possible for citizens through a mobile application designed for Interior Ministry services, along with other service procedures such as export and re-export of vehicles.

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Gomelauri also told Mps 77 additional speed control sections had been installed in the country in 2021, with a total of 5,414 cameras activated on roads across Georgia. 

The Interior Minister pledged to continue implementing reforms and legislative changes in the state body, noting the “main priority” of his Ministry would be “effective and timely implementation of criminal police reform, fight against crime and strengthening of the analysis-based policing system”.

Gomelauri was speaking at the Parliament as part of his turn to address MPs in the Minister’s Hour format, where Government officials cover matters concerning their field of work, and answer questions from legislators.