Mladá Boleslav - Before November 1989, the police was helped in their efforts to look after public order by a voluntary force, the so-called Assistant Guards.
Nowadays the major cities' authorities are hiring the volunteers again this time to protect children at the zebra crossings.
Of course, the city halls reject any connection with the special police helpers of the Communist regime with the distinctive yellow armband with the identifying blue letters PS-VB.
"These are not guards," Jaromír Pumr, head of the City Police in Mladá Boleslav, told Aktuálně.cz. "They are not even Assistant Guards, and have nothing to do at all with the PS VB."
Mladá Boleslav leads the way
It was Mladá Boleslav who started the trend in May at the first town in the Czech Republic.
Now that the new school year began, the volunteers will also be protecting children in the streets of the Moravian city of Brno. Other towns are also considering a similar service and look for advice from Mladá Boleslav.
What the law says
WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO STOP CARSAlso entitled to stop vehicles, in order to ensure safe road crossing of children and pupils close to a school building, is a person who had been authorized by the local council of a municipality with wider authority. During such activities, a person with a similar authorization has to wear distinctive markings as stipulated in implementary legislative regulations.
All the volunteers without exception are retired men and women. "These are elder people who want to help," the spokesperson of the police officers in Brno Denisa Kapitančiková told the Aktuálně.cz daily.
Those interested in dilettante policing were still applying for the job on Friday.
Under the latest Road Traffic Act, the volunteers have the right to stop cars at the zebra crossings thus ensuring the safe crossing for the pupils.
A service for 150 Czech Crowns a day
There is no lack of interest in Mladá Boleslav, either. All the fourteen voluntary positions are taken, so the police is only accepting people for backup duty.
It can happen that one of the pensioners comes down with illness and cannot perform his duty outside the school. In that case, another one takes his place.
Each of those selected for the duty has to be trained by a Traffic Inspector and receive an authorization from the Traffic Department of Mladá Boleslav town hall.
After that, each of the pensioners is issued with a regulation reflective jacket and a cap; and then, twice a day in the morning and after the lunch hour they ward a pedestrian crossing outside one of the town's fourteen local schools.
They also have contact phone numbers and can summon help if necessary.
Says the head of the police force in Mladá Boleslav Jaromír Pumr: "They are regular town employees under a freelance contract."
The pensioners are being paid 150 Czech Crowns a day. On the other hand, in Brno they will be working for nothing.
Our town is safer now
The police in Mladá Boleslav are singing praise of the retired volunteers' work. "I am really satisfied with their work; our town is definitely a bit more safe now," claims Mr Pumr.
Brno has to wait with the evaluation for the time being. "We'll see how it works," said Brno police spokesperson, Ms Kapitančiková.
Zdeněk Svátek, the highly regarded Czech traffic legislation specialist, points out that the town halls in the Czech Republic can not use the services of the volunteers anywhere else but outside the schools.
"Otherwise we could have a new Assistant Guards, and that would be illegal under the current law," Mr Svátek told Aktuálně.cz.
To see the article in its Czech original, click here.
