Police chief «planned to exit system»

Photo: Andres Haabu

Executing his reforms, Police and Border Guard Board director general Elmar Vaher is guided by principle of no cosy posts for friends.

Interviewed by Postimees, PBGB chief Elmar Vaher explains his plans to merge traffic police special unit and riot police with Northern Prefecture, and tightening officialdom’s belt by further ten percent.

What is the difference between prefect and director-general jobs?

As prefect, you can be more of a bona fide policeman, in the direct sense. Director-general must do more outside-of-organisation work; a prefect will work inside of it, carrying things out. I would say that while director general goes by «why and what», a prefect deals mainly with the «how».

Director-general’s post brings larger limelight. Like when they set you up as candidate – four-five hours after the news was heard, I got my first phone call on «what Mr Vaher lacks as a leader».

Firstly, in no job have I sought after popularity. Secondly: I am not so naive as to assume everybody ought to agree. Thirdly, I am no candidate for a prudish boy – risks must be taken, boldness is needed. The 17 years in police provide me with basis to decide on the move, not getting entangled in hundreds of pages of analysis.

Your decision to change almost the entire management came as somewhat of a shock... 

Carrying out these ideas would have been hard for me and them (former leaders – R. B.) alike. With former leadership in place, it would have been difficult to carry out my ideas.

One of those sacked, the law and order head Tarmo Miilits enjoyed the prime minister’s backing – from Bronze Night times. Among the border guards, the boss Tõnu Hunt was popular. You must have been quite determined to get rid of the old guard.

Depends how you look at it... PBGB had maintained paralleling capacities and activities in its varying structures; to do away with that being a goal of the merger. Three and a half years having passed and the tasks still unfulfilled – and, as part of the management, I saw it, felt it – we could not continue together. 

It is not that we were enemies, at feud. I admit they were professionals of their fields; even so, I preferred to continue with another leadership.

The sacked ones, addressed privately, were asking if they were the infamous Oak Alley... Meaning the posts granted on basis of personal relations, posts not really needed at all. Where’s the guarantee that you will never be fixing posts like this for those in your inner circle?

When it comes to having opportunities to invent jobs for friends – I have had the chance for some eight years already, since the Central Criminal Police chief post. Never have I done that. Coming back to your reference to Oak Alley – where is it? Investigator at heart, I always want to go by facts.

For years, Border Guard has felt it is being persecuted. The last grudge being that they will now be losing their house, on Pärnu Hwy, to be occupied by the management.

We have no such thing as a border guard house; we have police and border guard buildings. Sure, I desire to gather the closer leadership team into a shared life cycle. Currently, they are scattered all over Tallinn. To poll a common cart, we must do it as a team. I am a team player; right now, I feel absolutely alone on this floor. If I cannot meet Merike Jürilo, from citizenship and migration, every morning to talk things over; if I do not see Krista Aas from criminal police etc, then I feel I have left something undone, as a leader. A leader has to create the atmosphere, moving together is one way of doing that.

In my mind, the constant grouchiness of border guards comes from having been a wealthier brother, to police, before merger... and now they’ve lost it all.

I can’t evaluate it like that. Have never worded it like that in my own mind. And I do not get the «yours and mine» attitude. This is public property, as leaders we have to make prudent use of it. When it comes to state assets, it is not prudent, in my opinion, to see to one’s own interests.

As former Northern prefect, border guards count your greatest sin to be the removal of border guard from the Muuga and Paldiski ports; currently, they travel from Tallinn to do checks in the said ports.

Paldiski no longer having a cordon does not mean the border is not guarded. I have an important principle, concerning all our employees: we must work, not merely go to work. In the Paldiski cordon, we were busy guarding ourselves, the computers and weapons, with no time left over for the border itself.

Let me give you a concrete example. It was January, 2010; at 3 pm, I happened to visit the Paldiski cordon. It was a snowy day. Three border guards were at work, their shift having begun at 8 am. Asked what they had been busy doing the whole day, they said: cleaning snow. I do realise this is an important thing to do; nevertheless, I asked one more time: what have been your duties, today? Then they said there would be a ship coming in, soon; they’d be going to fix the papers. As a leader, no prefect of director-general can allow stuff like that.

Why is it that border guards get along better with criminal police and worse with law and order folks?

I have not noticed open feud. The conflicts arise as we expect border guard units to react, as nearest mobile units, to cases to which – as a rule – law and order units tend to react. This is still an issue and, recently, I was asked about that at a meeting in Western Prefecture.

However, this was the aim of the merger: more state involvement in saving people. I cannot understand how a patriotic border guard, at every step thinking about state interests, would not be willing to help a person that has just been beaten up. People like that are unfit for our organisation.

Talking about law and order: would you explain your recent decision to merge the so-called traffic police special unit with Northern Prefecture?

It is not subordination that makes somebody special; it is the kind of works that needs to be done. The special traffic work will not disappear, nowhere in Estonia. With 15 people, it would be quite complicated to do effective traffic monitoring, daily.

And then there is the decision to merge Tallinn strike team with riot police.

These are all policemen with excellent training, simply under different command. They train and react to events together; but they are directed separately. That breeds confusion and may lead to situations where, in crisis, they would not function as a unified force. Often, I have seen that in definite situations, amazed we have not shot one another.

It is my desire that we would have excellent strike capabilities on the streets, all the time. That, within minutes, we would be able to launch forces into all areas of Estonia: issuing a command to head, in a few moments, to Sillamäe, Tartu or Saaremaa, not having to call folks from their homes.

These past years, police staff has shrunk by about 500 people. Come another Bronze Night, will the forces not be too feeble?

At the moment, we have a 250-member team, all over the land; they are training differently, possessing professional equipment. Collecting them from homes and moving to where they are needed has been trained and prepared. I dare say our capabilities with similar crisis are better than in 2007.

To your recent decision concerning added belt-tightening in headquarters – by 10 per cent – those at lower levels will probably applaud. What will that mean, in reality, for a rank-and-file policeman?  

The goal is to review the headquarters salaries and create market competition – let the people be fewer, but let them be better motivated. And, partly, to find money for the field: for the places where offences are dealt with, borders guarded, traffic supervised. The sum will not be big, as PBGB’s management is thin as it is.

You have said police should not be entangled in excessive analysis, and that no posts should be created to leaders who have lost their posts, just for who they are. That will not make you popular, in the offices...

I do state work, not having personal interests. Heading home in the evening, I want to know I have done something for Estonia’s sake. Comfortable decisions of nice jobs fixed for nice guys – I could not work like that.

A day will dawn when you will no longer be director-general. Then, the issue will arise: will I float on vaguely at police, or will I leave. Will you be another oak on the alley, then?

The oak leaves on my uniform – I wear these with pride. And be it known: I had a definite plan to exit the organisation on January 1^st 2015, once my time was up as prefect. To where, I’ll keep that to myself. But I do believe: in five of 15 years from now, I can still be a blessing to the state.

Why and how

Extracts from explanations by Elmar Vaher on changes planned at PBGB, from insider-magazine Radar.

«Headquarters» budget cut by ten per cent:

Over these past years, PBGB staff has shrunk by 500 people. Headquarter headcount has basically stayed the same.

Department heads and prefects will review administration of all units not directly involved with helping people of proceedings, guided by their budget cut by ten per cent starting New Year. Thinning out the panning-analysing part will definitely also lead to lay-offs at headquarters.

On merger of law and order police department and Northern Prefecture units:

Operative bureau strike unit (riot) spends two thirds of its working time on three per cent of Estonian territory i.e. Tallinn. Meanwhile, Northern Prefecture possesses a separate strike unit; as we constantly see at exercises and real life (such as the Defence Ministry case), the two units’ cooperation gets stalled.

Law and order department will analyse how to unite the two units; to whom it would be subordinated and where it would be located physically. This is aimed at creating a strike unit functioning as a unified team.

Also, traffic bureau spends half of its work time on territory of Northern Prefecture. We will review the working processes and seek for ways to make these compatible with traffic unit of Northern Prefecture. 

A call for all to act honest while changes are executed:

Honesty means we will note hide people in other units while executing the changes; we will not invent extra roles for anybody, roles they do not have in reality; we will not be creating structures so as to find a post for every leader somewhere. I also expect us not to get entangled in excessive analysis while executing the changes. Sometimes, the desire for endless analysis points to our cowardice and indecisiveness.