At that time, the Police was equipped with several rafts as well. The new unit’s task is to patrol along the river banks and they will probably also appear at Hostivarska Prehrada and at Dzban, said the director of the Municipal Police, Vladimir Kotrous. The River Unit police officers will also have the important job to guard the banks and protect them against illegal dumps, to make sure that smooth operation of boats is observed, to patrol on the river banks, especially at anchorage places and make sure that no anchored boats are robbed. The activities of the River Unit were extended to lifesaving. The floods in 2002 proved that it was necessary to establish a river unit. At that time, boats had to be borrowed, said Vladimir Kotrous. The first intervention of the Municipal Police’s River Unit was the inspection of a vessel which was anchored under Charles Bridge.

 This happened just a few days after Majda’s baptism. The intervention was based on a phone call that the Police had received. Police officers went to check a boat from which test pits were made into Charles Bridge for its future reconstruction. At that time the unit’s residence was in a rented premises on Cisarska Louka. The officers had already gone through complete training, each of them had a life-saving course, a Small vessel leader certificate and also diving training, said Vladimir Kotrous. What’s more, diving is a hobby for most of the officers.

 In August 2006, the Municipal Police’s River Unit obtained a new building to use. The building is in Lahvice. The City bought it from the previous owners after the floods in 2002. At that time Lahvice were completely destroyed and the houses there were flooded up to the first floor, smaller houses even up to the roof. The new building became the headquarters of the River Unit and there is also the operational centre of the River Unit. The River Units’s anchorage with an extending fleet (since the foundation of the unit, two other boats were obtained, one of them is a life-saving boat for people who are drowning with a tipping bow) remained on Cisarska Louka. In 2006 the number of officers increased as well by ten experienced men.


The powers of the unit have been extended, too. The officers also supervised the operation on the Vltava, getting behind buoys too close to weirs, they also supervised camps, the cleanness of river banks and whole water surfaces (not only on the Vltava). They work has also been extended to illegal fishing so they have started monitoring breeding ponds. At the turn of the year 2007, the sculpture of Calvary on Charles Bridge was attacked. The River Unit’s divers searched for the letters, which, according to experts, had ended up in the Vltava. The Municipal Police was helped by the divers of the Police of the CR and in the end, at least a part of the inscription was found. The work of the divers then continued. In the end, during the year 2007, several unique pieces were found, which previous divers expeditions under Charles Bridge failed to find. In May 2007, the Municipal Police got a hovercraft. The machine has the power of 110 horses and it can carry a load of 500 kg. „It is destined for rescuing people during floods, for the rescue of people drowning in ice and in other situations of crisis in a badly accessible terrain,” said deputy mayor Rudolf Blazek on the occasion of viewing the new hovercraft. Just to give you an idea, it takes less than ten minutes for it to get from the River Unit’s base to Cisarska Louka in Troja, as it has no problems crossing all the weirs. The highest weir is at Stvanice. The hovercraft gets over it through the sluice for salmons. Four officers are being trained to control the hovercraft. If necessary, the hovercraft will also serve the fire brigade, medical rescue services and other units of the integrated rescue system in Prague. The hovercraft cost less than 2 million CZK and its operation is estimated to cost 450 to 500 CZK for an hour of operation.

Oskar Exner