All emergency services (including the police) in Poland and around the world have been struggling with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic since March. Numerous associations, foundations and international organisations are doing their best to support their efforts taken due to this difficult situation. It is worth indicating that all the structures of our association in Poland have actively joined the fight against the pandemic:

To implement the resolution of the national board, the board of IPA Poland bought 4,550 certified protective masks and handed them over to the Police Headquarters in Warsaw. The masks were distributed to police units around Poland, in which there are deficiencies in personal protective equipment. Moreover, we managed to obtain more than 6,000 protective masks (without any additional charge) from the entrepreneurs who support the IPA statutory activity. What is more, we also received more than 600 protective masks from the border guards of the Carpathian Border Guard Unit from Nowy Sącz. To sum up, we received more than 11,000 protective masks in total for police and border guards;

Thanks to the involvement of the president of the IPA group in the capital, the national president and the Polish IPA Section’s treasurer, we received (free of charge) 100 pallets (more than 50,000 bottles of different flavour and volumes) of ‘Żywiec Zdrój’ sparkling water. These were handed over to the police officers from the three biggest police units in Poland serving directly in the field, which are: the Police Headquarters in Warsaw, as well as the voivodship headquarters in Poznań and Kraków;

The voivodship group from Lublin, in cooperation with the Lublin IPA Region, bought 80 running meters of cotton fabric, which was used to sew more than 3,600 protective masks for police officers from the Lublin garrison;

The IPA Lublin Region joined a fundraiser with the  aim of equipping Polish hospitals with additional respirators. The funds gained were handed over to Infectious Ward of the Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Lublin;

In addition, the IPA Lublin Region, in cooperation with the Lublin Charity Action, bought 70 protective visors, which have been handed over to the Social Welfare Home ‘Kalina’ in Lublin. These protective measures will help raise the sense of safety of the employees, who are now taking care of over 100 people;

The West Pomeranian IPA voivodship group (thanks to the support of the LEVITO entreprise from Wałcz) received external protective measures in the form of: antibacterial gels (17,000), disposable foil gloves (100), reusable protective masks (90), face protection masks (8,000) and reusable protective visors (100). These items were handed over to police officers from Wałcz, Łobza and Szczecin by the president of the group and the chairman of the Szczecin IPA Region;

The entreprise ‘Just Hero’ from Łódź handed over 900 protective masks to the IPA KWP Region Łódź. All masks have been given to police officers from the voivodship quarter of Łódź;

A district police officer and IPA member has been involved in various beneficial activities for many years. During these hard times, together with the ‘Dobre Rączki’ squad, she sewed more than 2,800 masks, which were handed to institutions and individuals from Opatów county. The first round of cotton masks went to the hospitals in Opatów and Sandomierz, and the second round to the Hospital in Opatów. She also hands colourful masks to the people from her service area;

The Greater Poland IPA voivodship group, together with the Poznań IPA Region, Pozań E and Gostyń - thanks to the support of their meritorious members, their own resources and people of good will -  handed over more than 9,500 disposable masks, a few thousand rubber gloves, disinfectants in the form of gels and liquids, and protective visors to police units;

The Nowy Sącz IPA Region delivered two sterilisation devices to the police city headquarters in Nowy Sącz. These devices will serve in preparation for service and work, thanks to the possibility of sterilising everyday objects. The first device was handed over to police officers from Nowy Sącz, and the second one to police officers from Krynica-Zdrój. Moreover, the police officers received 5 non-contact thermometres;

The Wadowice IPA Region bought 3 non-contact thermometres, which are used in the district police quarters in Oświęcim, Sucha Beskidzka and Wadowice. The thermometres are intended to be used by duty service and reception staff;

To provide education on social distancing during the period of limited functioning of schools, the Olsztyn IPA Region has been supporting the local elementary school by providing two computer sets for students who do not own such devices;

The West Pomeranian voivodship IPA Group supported the city hospitals in Białogard and Połczyn Zdrój and the Szczecin emergency medical service by buying around 300 disposable protective masks for paramedics and medical lifeguards.

These are only selected examples of activities undertaken by IPA Poland in the fight against the coronavirus. We hope that they had an impact in raising safety levels of police officers and other emergency services in the difficult times of the epidemic.

Piotr Wójcik, President IPA Poland (text)

Jacek Molik, Iwona Grzebyk-Dulak, Ryszard Balczyński, Aneta Sobieraj (photos)