From December 1, commune police have been given some increased authority.

This morning (November 29), the Office of the President held a press conference to announce the President's Order promulgating the laws passed by the 15th National Assembly, 2nd session.

Mr. Nguyen Huy Tien, Permanent Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy.

Regarding the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Criminal Procedure Code, Mr. Nguyen Huy Tien, Permanent Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy, said that institutionalizing the Party's policies and implementing current legal regulations, all commune police have been organized regularly, playing an important role in ensuring security and social order.

This has been contributing effectively to the fight against crime; especially in the context of the current complicated Covid-19 epidemic, the case must be handled immediately at the grassroots level.

However, Clause 3, Article 146 of the Criminal Procedure Code does not stipulate that commune police are allowed to conduct preliminary inspection and verification in receiving denunciations and reports of crimes like ward, town police and police stations.

This has resulted in the commune police not being able to fully play their regular role, and not being able to promptly reduce the huge workload for the district-level police investigation agencies in localities in receiving denunciations and reports of crimes and recommending prosecution.

Therefore, Clause 1, Article 1 of the Law amends and supplements Clause 3, Article 146 in the direction of adding the responsibility for checking and verifying preliminary denunciations and reports of crimes to the commune police (equivalent to the responsibility of the ward, town and police station police).

Specifically: Commune, ward, town police and police stations are responsible for receiving denunciations and reports of crimes, making records of receipt, conducting preliminary inspection and verification and immediately transferring denunciations and reports of crimes along with related documents and objects to competent investigation agencies.

Article 44 stipulates the responsibilities of the commune, ward, town police, and police stations. In particular, in cases where the commune, ward, town police, or police stations discover, arrest, or receive a flagrant offender or a wanted person, they shall confiscate and temporarily detain weapons and dangerous weapons, preserve relevant documents and objects, make a record of the arrest, take initial statements, and protect the scene according to the provisions of law; immediately take the arrested person to the next higher level police agency or immediately report to the competent investigation agency.

This Law comes into force from December 1, 2021.

According to Vietnamnet