Municipal Decree on Cleanliness and Alcohol Consumption is Monitored by Police (Portal of Prague)

During the first few days since the new decree on cleanliness came into force the police have been looking into 530 offences. Prague City Police also monitor the nature of offences.

Out of the 376 cases of pollution in the streets and other public places, offences concerned 253 discarded cigarette ends, 46 chewing gums and 56 food leftovers, said spokeswoman of city police, Radka Bredlerová.

Another seven cases were regarding littering the streets with animal food. There were also 16 cases of illegal billposting and on two occasions City Police dealt with an offence of street pollution by car owners that were exiting buildings. Also 17 dog owners were punished for not cleaning up excrement from their pets. More than one hundred offences haven’t been specified.

City Police have dealt with 161 offences by issuing fines amounting to 63,400 czk. Thirty five offences they announced to an administrative body and in the other 330 cases they used the option of a reprimand.

Alcohol Consumption Decree

The decree on the prohibition of alcohol consumption in designated public areas has been in force since the 7^th June. On the first day police officers had to deal with 84 offences. In eleven cases they imposed fines totalling 5,900 czk, two offences were reported to the administrative body and in 71 cases the offenders were reprimanded. The number of offences regarding alcohol consumption is in the region of 50 to 100 cases a day. Some citizens didn’t agree with the decree and so in some cases police officers had to resort to the Police of the Czech Republic. One example is the event of the evening of the 9^th July, when a man was sitting on the bench near to a play-ground in Seminářská zahrada (The Seminary Garden) drinking a bottle of wine. Police officers pointed out to him that he was committing an offence. Instead of accepting his misconduct he started behaving arrogantly. He refused to identify himself and repeatedly didn’t respond to them. Therefore the police officers had to take him to the local department of Police of the Czech Republic where he was identified and subsequently fined one thousand crowns. He could have avoided that because it is not the intention of City Police to issue fines but merely to ensure public order.

Oskar Exner