Latvian committee backs wider border guard weapon powers

A Latvian parliamentary committee has backed expanding border guards’ authority to use force and weapons to protect border infrastructure, while also supporting a disputed proposal that would allow the Border Guard to investigate some alleged crimes by its own officers, LSM reported.

The proposed changes would explicitly allow guards to use physical force, firearms and other special measures to repel an attack on an object guarded by the Border Guard or on state border infrastructure. Guards may already use these measures in specified situations, including to repel an attack on a person or to stop a public order violation that obstructs their work.

Under the amendments, a guard could use a firearm without first giving a warning if warning the person were not possible because it could hinder their detention. The changes would also require the prosecutor’s office to be notified if someone is injured or killed following the use of force by border guards.

Vilnis Vitolins, a deputy state secretary at the Interior Ministry and director of its Legal Department, said the law did not explicitly cover attacks on guarded objects or border infrastructure. He said spelling out the authority in the Border Guard Law would clarify officers’ powers.

The committee also supported allowing the Border Guard, in certain cases, to investigate its employees over suspected crimes involving the use of violence.