Janko Goršek, Director General of the Police, was the speaker of honour at the opening of the four-day international conference on human rights, police ethics and integrity on Brdo pri Kranju on 12 April 2011.

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He pointed out that, in the current social situation, the crisis of values was becoming increasingly aggravated and that in such uncertain circumstances each individual was highly susceptible to the crisis of his own integrity. In this respect, police officers frequently find themselves in an unenviable position due to the nature of their work and the legitimate expectation of their ethical conduct.

"Frankly ethical conduct often depends on an individual's personality and personal integrity. Police ethics should not be dependent on an individual's judgement alone. We have been entrusted with the work that we do together with the justified expectation that it will be performed with the greatest possible responsibility and sensitivity to people's distress. This is why a concept as elusive as ethics needs to be placed in a tangible framework. /?/ An institution is people. And organisational ethics is in fact the ethics of the people employed in that organisation. /?/ We are aware that legal and professional police work alone is no longer sufficient. It has to be enriched by additional values. To efficiently implement the police mission, a high level of integrity is necessary. In order to achieve this level of integrity, it needs to be talked about, promoted, both directly and indirectly, as well as nurtured and developed," added Mr.Goršek.

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The conference focusing on personal and organisational integrity is organised by the Slovenian police in cooperation with the European Police Academy (CEPOL). The conference is led by Mr. Robert Šumi from the Division for Police Powers and Prevention in the Service of the Director General of the Police at the General Police Directorate.

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Presentations by police experts and guests from other institutions and organisations from Slovenia and abroad were attended by 24 participants. The subject of the discussion included, among other things, the consequences of non-ethical conduct and training of border police members on the subject of fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals. Representatives of the Bulgaria and the Polish police will present the situation in their respective countries.

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In the Slovenian police, professional ethics have been a part of the Police Academy training programme since 1999. An important year for police integrity and ethics was 2005, when one of the police directorates organised the first training on this subject, followed by training of the police at all levels in 2009. A working group for strengthening the integrity of the police and education and training of its members was established in 2008. In the same year, a new code of police ethics was prepared and adopted, and this year we set up an integrity and ethics committee, an advisory body to the Director General of the Police, whose task is to study systematically strategic proposals, new developments, issues and dilemmas associated with integrity and ethics.