Praha - To help and protect and be polite at the same time. This is Czech Interior Ministry's vision of police's code of conduct.

While you can spot police cars cruising the country with the "To help and protect" slogan writeen on doors, the code of polite conduct has been added to the new Police Act,which will come into force in January 2009.

Being polite under all circumstances will be among the fundamental duties of a police officer while on his or her duty.

"A police officer and/or police employee is to observe a code of conduct upon performing his duties, which means he has to respect person's honor and dignity as well as his own," says article 9 in Police Act.

Police: But we are polite

Police Headquarters´ spokesperson David Kubalák says the code of professional conduct has been already observed by Czech police.

"We don't expect any major changes with the enforcement of the new law in January 2009. Politeness and respect have been set out in the Code of Police Ethics, which has been in effect since 2005," says Kubalák.

Enforcing polite behavior for the police is legitimate, says Jan Kopal from the League of Human Rights says.

Serving people

"Little details like a slogan on a police car may change a general perception of the police tasks. We have been long making efforts to enforce a so called "community policing". In other words, we want citizens to cooperate with police. By doing that, the police officers have a better idea of what is happening in their district," says Kopal.

Community policing is a strategy that is based on a community interaction when the public helps to draw attention of police to the problems in their district.

However, the new bill does not set out any sanctions for violating a person's dignity. A police officer can be fined only when acting inappropriately towards his or her colleague or superior.

"This is something different. Internal rules do allow punishing an officer for inappropriate behavior. But it has nothing to do with the public," says Kubalák.