Hunt to take over as police chief on Thursday

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

Tõnu Hunt, deputy director of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board responsible for border guard, will take over as director ad interim on Thursday as the outgoing police chief, Raivo Küüt, has taken a day's leave for the final day on the job and his successor has not been appointed yet.

Interior Minister Ken-Marti Vaher signed on Monday a resolution allowing Küüt to take a day's leave on Thursday, February 28. Küüt's term in office ends on Friday, March 1.

Hunt is likely to perform the duties of police chief until the next director general takes up the appointment. The statutes of the Police and Border Guard Board say that the first substitute for director general is Tõnu Hunt and the next substitutes Raigo Haabu, Tarmo Miilits, Merike Jurilo and Indrek Tibar. Haabu, Miilits, Jürilo and Tibar are deputies to the director general for criminal police, public order police, citizenship and migration, and properties, respectively.

The Interior Ministry committee tasked with finding a new director general for the agency on Friday nominated Priit Kama, currently deputy secretary general at the Justice Ministry, for the position. The nomination is subject to approval by the interior minister and the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee, and has to be confirmed by the government. If the appointment is approved the new director general will probably start work at the end of April.

Kama has been working at the Justice Ministry since 1993 and as deputy secretary general in charge of correctional facilities since 2005. He obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Tartu and a master's degree from the Tallinn University of Technology, and is pursuing doctoral studies in law at the University of Tartu.

Kuut tendered his resignation in November in the wake of a scandal over speeding fines issued by officers of the East Prefecture based on readings from an uncalibrated speed measuring device and subsequent cover-up of the case.