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Crime in Poland is combated by the Polish police and other agencies.
Contents
Murder
In 2011, Poland had a murder rate of 1.2 per 100,000 population. There were a total of 449 murders in Poland in 2011. In 2014 Poland had a murder rate of 0.7 per 100,000. There were a total 283 murders in Poland in 2014.
Organized crime
The most well known of the Polish organized crime groups in the 1990s were the so-called Pruszkow and the Wolomin gangs.
The first war against organized crime was won by Poland in the 90’s. This war was aimed at large gangs. The state triumphed and so we no longer have the gangs of Wolomin and Pruszkow,” said Mr Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz at the press conference at the MI.
Head of the MI added that at the moment there were about 200 criminal groups operating across Poland which were under constant police monitoring. “For none of them the situation is likely to return to the one observed in the 90’s” said Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz.
Polish organized crime emerged in the 1990s, when the traditional criminal underworld became better organised and due to rising corruption. Organized crime groups were well known (1992) for operating sophisticated car theft-rings, as well as for their involvement in drug trafficking (the main drug being amphetamine) and weapon trafficking.
The Pruszków mafia was an organized criminal group that emerged from the Warsaw suburb of Pruszków in the beginning of the 1990s. The group is known for being involved in large car-theft rings, drug trafficking (including cocaine, heroin, hashish and amphetamine), kidnapping, extortion, weapon trafficking (including AK-47's) and murder. Even though law enforcement dealt a severe blow to the Pruszków mafia, it is alleged that Pruszków-based gangs, with or without notice from their former leaders, have regained their strength in recent years and have begun setting up their car-theft rings and connections with Colombian drug cartels again.
A similar organized crime group known as the Wołomin mafia from Wołomin near Warsaw, with whom they fought bloody turf wars, was crushed by the Polish police in cooperation with the German police in a spectacular raid on a highway between Konin and Poznan in September 2011.
Corruption
Poland ranked 30th in the 175 country listing the Corruption Perception Index for 2015. It is the tenth successive year in which Poland's score and ranking has improved in the Index.
By location
The crime rate is the highest in Upper Silesia district, where both earnings and unemployment are also the highest in Poland.
Crime dynamics
While local organized crime in Poland existed during the interwar period, it has mostly developed since the fall of communism (late 1980s/1990s) with the introduction of free market system in Poland and the lessening of the police (milicja) power.
Crime in Poland is lower than in many countries of Europe. Surveys conducted in 2005 placed Poland below the European average, with crime victimisation rates lower than in Ireland, England and Wales, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Estonia, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden and Norway.
Newer studies (2009) report that the crime victimisation rate in Poland is constantly decreasing, and in 2008 Poland was at a low end of 25 among the 36 European countries listed. A 2004 report on security concerns of European Union residents indicated that the Polish public (along with that of Greece) are the most afraid of crime, a finding which does not correlate with the actual crime threat.