Is this the first time you have taken part in the Invex-Computer fair, or are you a regular visitor?

This is certainly not the first time I have taken part in the fair. You could say I am a regular visitor - this is the fourth time I have been here.

The Ministry of the Interior and the Czech Police are making a presentation at Invex for the second time. How would you assess this presentation?

In my opinion the Ministry of the Interior and the Police of the Czech Republic have made an extremely successful presentation of the results of the fight against computer piracy and, on a more general level, provided visitors with information about the violation of copywrite laws, which is, without doubt, of considerable preventative importance.

In addition to this we have decided to present new information technology for communication between operational police centres and for the monitoring of motor vehicles. These applications have, unfortunately, yet to be implemented throughout the country, though we have drawn up projects for them to be made available to police officers throughout the country in the future.

Can you tell us something about the current use of computer technology within the police force, and the changes you would like to see?

At the present time we have a police information and communication system comprised of basic elements, i.e. district police headquarters working via the regions to central offices. In this way we have created some kind of primary structure for the transmission of information. This system unfortunately can not yet be used at basic levels (divisonal police departments) or isolated units. In this respect it is not fully effective, and not capable of the required co-ordination of individual police sections.

Every criminal act is, of course, a serious matter. In terms of computer crime, however, how would you assess its gravity in comparison with other forms of criminality?

In terms of frequency of occurence this type of crime does not hold a statistically significant position. Although it cannot be found in a leading position in the tables produced by our statisticians, this does not mean that we can underestimate the social danger it presents, since those committing crimes of this type are capable of interfering with the running of our monetary institutions and the state administration, or of entering into banking operations and causing considerable damage.

An integral part of computer criminality is, of course, the abuse of software copywrite, which, along with other copywrite violation, has been extremely frequent in recent times. This is a situation we must do something about.

With your new position a lot must have changed for you. Can this also be said of your attitude towards computers?

In the long term I see a high-quality information environment within the Czech police force as a fundamental pre-condition for effective work by the police and its individual services, since without information we can manage nothing effectively. Now, of course, in terms of the whole police force, I fully realise for the first time how expensive it is to obtain such information.