The prosecution service in our country has a history of just over a century and a half. Although its tasks, functions and roles have been distorted by the interests of power in certain historical periods, following the change of regime in 1989 and Hungary’s accession to the European Union, we can say that the prosecution service of today can be described as an organisation worthy of a democratic constitutional state, which is well adapted to the challenges of the digital age and which uses the results of both science and practice. In this month’s interview, Prof. Dr. Péter Polt, Prosecutor General, gave us an insight into the practice of implementing EU judicial cooperation, the IT developments at the Prosecutor General’s Office and the prosecution organisation, and the implementation of the legislative intentions of the 2017 Act of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which was actively drafted with the active participation of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Mr. Prosecutor General was interviewed by Valér Dános Editor-in-Chief and Csaba Szabó, Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

Dr. István Ambrus is a renowned Hungarian researcher on compliance, digitalisation and criminal law. His research work is accompanied by his work in the field of law, so in his teaching activities he is in the position to pass on his  professional experience to criminology students in addition to his theoretical knowledge. He has been appointed Head of the Department of Criminology at Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University from 2022. Readers can learn more about the characteristics of the Master’s programme in criminology in Hungary, the complexity of the training, the challenges of the mixed background of students and the research work in the department. The Head of Department was interviewed by Szandra Fazekas-Pátyodi editorial staff member.

Professor Dr. Gábor Kovács, a recognized Hungarian scholar in the field of criminal sciences. As a researcher and head of the department, he has an insight into academic life in several roles, so we had the opportunity to hear his thoughts on the role of digital journals in the lives of university students, his teaching by example, and his own publication habits and recognition; we were also able to gain insight into the professional development of the Department of Criminal Sciences in Győr. Dr. Csaba Szabó, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Szandra Fazekas-Pátyodi, Szemle’s staff member discussed with the professor.

Our interviewee for January 2023 is Dr. Zoltán Bolcsik, State Secretary for Law Enforcement of Ministry of Interior. The discussion will give us an insight into the current cooperation between law enforcement instituions, and the professional plans and objectives of the State Secretary for 2023. The interview was conducted by Prof. Dr. Valér Dános, Editor-in-Chief and Dr. Csaba Szabó, Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

Since May 2022, dr. Bence Rétvári is the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior and also Deputy Minister. His public engagement is not without precedent, problems that are widely affecting the society, tasks to be solved are not strangers to him. Since 2014, he has been Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Human Resources, where he has been active in professional issues affecting the Ministry. We asked him how he welcomed the new challenge and how unusual the home affairs sector, including law enforcement, is to him. The interview was conducted by Valér Dános, Editor-in-Chief, and Zsuzsanna Hornyik, Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

‘Victim assistance is a complex activity that requires a great deal of expertise, the cooperation of government agencies, police forces, churches and NGOs, so that victims can receive appropriate, tailored assistance as soon as possible,’ said Judit Varga. She said the government’s goal is to have victim support centres in all county capitals by 2025. The above thoughts were expressed at the inauguration of the second Victim Assistance Point in Érd on 10 January 2022, where the Minister also mentioned the Victim Assistance Point in Salgótarján, which was also inaugurated in order to provide assistance and administration as quickly as possible. Thanks to extensive information and a series of campaigns, the number of people using the services of victim support centres is increasing. We asked the Minister of Justice, Dr. Judit Varga, about the innovations and modernisations that have been made since the opening of the points, how many people have used the services offered, and what the Ministry of Justice’s objectives are. The interview was conducted by dr Zsuzsanna Hornyik, deputy editor-in-chief.

The Rapid Response and Special Police Service (hereinafter referred to as the „KR”) is a nationally competent police body subordinate to the National Police Headquarters (ORFK), a permanent police force of the Hungarian Police. Its motto: „Unity, Loyalty, Honour”. The KR forces are distinguished by the fact that they wear a burgundy pilot cap, a burgundy armband on their left upper arm, and „Készenléti Rendőrség” on the back of their outer garments instead of „POLICE”, and instead of white their vehicles are pa inted silver metallic. The regular headcount of KR, including its Budapest and rural subdivisions, is 9079 person. The commander of the police body is the Deputy National Chief of Police Operations, who is the director and head of the eight directorates and the four organizational divisions. From 1 September 2021, Police Major General dr. Csaba Tarcsa, former Director of the National Bureau of Investigation of the KR (hereinafter: NNI) took over the command of the KR. Among other things, we asked the Commander how the work of such a diverse unit with different activities could be managed in a coordinated way, and what challenges he faced.

“Without infocommunication, it is difficult to imagine our lives in the 21st century, as without the Internet we cannot always meet our physiological needs today, but the infrastructures that provide them can be subject to massive attacks. The current issues of cybersecurity and cyberwarfare were discussed at the Ludovika Free University by Brigadier General László Kovács, professor of the Faculty of Military Science and Military Officer Training and cyber defence observer of the Hungarian Defence Forces Command.” (URL1) The presentation raised fundamental issues, phenomena that endanger the security of the determining conditions that interweave our daily lives, which we should be as widely aware of as possible. The General began his presentation by asking whether we can imagine our lives with a half-hour power cut. The situation of not turning on the lights, not watching TV, not having a chilled soft drink when we get home. How many of us are capable of this? From the beginning to the end of the lecture, the audience listened to the General in silence and with rapt attention. We asked Brigadier General László Kovács about what cyberwarfare is, since when we can talk about it, and how important cyber security is in our everyday lives.

Dr. András Szöllősi-Nagy is an internationally renowned professor, by qualification an engineer, hydrologist. Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (management of hydrology and water management systems). He has been a visiting professor at several foreign universities (Sweden, Canada, Thailand, China). For twenty years he was Secretary of the UNESCO International Hydrology Programme in Paris, and he was Deputy Director- General of UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector for ten years. For the past five years, he has been rector of the UNESCO-IHE Institute of Water Science in Delft, the Netherlands. He is professor of Stochastic Hydrology at Delft University of Technology and at the UNESCO-IHE. His main research interests are stochastic hydrological systems and recursive forecasting algorithms, as well as the hydrological effects of sustainable development and climate change. Lecturer at the Faculty of Water Sciences of the University of Public Service, Honorary Doctor of the University of Debrecen. His professional opinion and resolutions – given his professional career so far – serve as a credible and effective guide for responsible water professionals. We asked the professor about how science serves national water management, what has happened so far and what we still need to do to conserve available water resources, and how extreme situations and epidemics affect these activities.

Frigyes Janza was born on 8 April 1947 in Újpest. Since 1971, he has held several positions in the Ministry of the Interior. This means that he has spent nearly 70% of his life as a home affairs member. As a former civilian employee, he was a veterinarian in Dunakeszi, at the BM Dog Handler Training School he operated a veterinary hospital, then as a professional officer he became the commander of the school. Success followed success, whatever he touched, something new, something miraculous was born. He became a leading figure in dog breeding and the training and education of service dog handlers in our country and has become a recognised and sought-after expert throughout Europe. In just a few years, police service dog handlers have come out on top at the European Drugs and Explosives Detection Dog Championships on several occasions. His name is also connected with the revival of the traditions of domestic horse breeding. As the head of the Service Animal Inspectorate, he supervised the professional activities at the Somogysárd equestrian base and established the National Equestrian Ceremonial Unit of the Republic. His monograph “Ethology” is still one of the most frequently consulted source materials among the professionals. His innovative, creative thinking and outstanding achievements in education and training were quickly noticed by the leadership of the Ministry of Interior. Therefore, it is no wonder that in 1998 he was appointed Head of the Education Department of the Ministry of the Interior. Although he never broke away from his original profession, today’s generation respects him more for his pioneering work in police training, and especially for his role in the establishment and operation of the University of Public Service. Today, as the Chief Education Observer of the Ministry of the Interior, he is involved in the dynamism of the education, training and further training system of the law enforcement field, and he is working with untiring enthusiasm to modernise a better system that meets the challenges of the times. His awards for his outstanding professional work, teaching and scientific organisation activities are hard to list. Among others, he is the owner of the Imre Kertész Prize, the András Szabó Medal, the title of Professor Emeritus, the Officer’s Cross Order of Merit of Hungary, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary, the St. George Medal, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Loyalty of Homeland, the Commemorative Medal for Outstanding Scientific Work. At its meeting in July 2020, the Senate of the University of Public Service, unanimously elected him honorary citizen of the institution, and also awarded him with a Kossuth-colt gift for his outstanding role in the founding and operation of the university. In the interview, the editor-in-chief of Belügyi Szemle, a decades-long comradein-arms of the interviewee, asked Prof. Dr. Frigyes Janza, ret. pol. major general, how and why he replaced his veterinary profession with the profession of human resource development in the public service.