From now on, auxiliary police organisations can only pursue their activities within the community of their registered headquarters, and any auxiliary police personnel breaking the law may receive a prison sentence or a fine of up to HUF 150,000. As a result of recent violent events related to auxiliary police organisations – including in Gyöngyöspata – on 16 May the National Assembly adopted legislative changes in order to maintain order in the public domain. These changes, which had been recommended by the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, have now entered into force.

According to the legislative amendments, auxiliary police organisations can only carry out their activities in the area indicated as their headquarters on their certificate of registration, which means that their members can only perform their duties in the central and peripheral areas of that settlement. An exception is if they sign an agreement with the police or other state or local government law enforcement agencies, with tax authorities, or with environmental protection and nature conservation bodies.

Auxiliary police may only pursue their activities on the basis of a written agreement with the police, and are obliged to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies of the State and the municipality in question. From now on, auxiliary police personnel must be adults with no criminal record, and are not allowed to wear uniforms which contravene statutory provisions.

As a result of related amendments to the law on misdemeanours, auxiliary police personnel breaching the provisions of the amended Auxiliary Police Act can be fined up to HUF 150,000, or may even be imprisoned.

Infringement proceedings fall within the remit of the courts. Provisions related to unauthorised public order activities have also been added to the law; thus anyone who performs an activity in a public place aimed at (or purporting to aim at) maintaining public safety or public order, but which is not authorised by the legislation, shall also be liable to a fine of up to HUF 150,000, or to imprisonment.

This legislation was necessary because a state under the rule of law cannot allow public order activities to be carried out by civil organisations which purport to be acting in an official capacity, but which have no statutory authorisation or supervision from the State.

Recently the Government tightened the Criminal Code in response to the appearance of a new form of crime in Hungary: so-called ‘uniformed crime’. The recently-adopted Auxiliary Police Act and the law on misdemeanours further strengthen those earlier measures.

(kormany.hu)