Odesa regional police chief resigns

Chief of the Main Department of the National Police of Ukraine in Odesa region Giorgi Lortkipanidze has resigned.

Lortkipanidze published relevant address on the website of the regional police branch.

"It was an honor to work as Odesa regional police chief. Everything in life has a logical beginning, continuation and an end. A year and a half since my appointment as head of Odesa police I decided to leave this post," the statement says.

Lortkipanidze explained his decision by complicated personnel situation in the Main Department of the National Police in Odesa region. According to him, after the reform, the regional police department is lacking 40% of personnel.

"To date, personnel shortage in the police is more than a thousand people. Meanwhile, the evaluation commission has ruled to sack another 400 police officers," Lortkipanidze said.

He added that there is a serious shortage of investigators. At present, one investigator has to deal with 200 to 400 cases.

Also, the former head of regional police acknowledged that the crime situation in the region has deteriorated in the past few years. However, the regional police team has been doing and will continue to do its best to curb crime in the region, and this work starts to produce results, he added.

At the end of his statement, Lortkipanidze said that as a citizen of Ukraine he remains in the service of the Ukrainian state and the country's supreme commander.

As reported, Former Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Giorgi Lortkipanidze, who received Ukrainian citizenship on June 11, 2016, took on the duties of police chief in Ukraine's Odesa region on June 15.