Justice and Public Order Minister Kostas Fytiris has proposed that companies operating delivery platforms create a “red button” to alert police immediately if a delivery worker is attacked.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting with staff from the Ministry, the Police, the Prisons and the Fire Service, Mr Fytiris addressed attacks against delivery workers. He said that, following a meeting with the companies operating the platforms, it had been established that there were also independent delivery workers who carried considerable amounts of money. “Most of the time, I estimate that it is robbery and not that the motives are racist,” he said.
The Minister noted that it is not possible to have a police officer everywhere and said the Ministry had proposed that the companies introduce a “red button”. He said implementation would take some time, if the companies agreed, so that a delivery worker could press the button and police could respond in the shortest possible time. He added that timely notification by victims was also necessary.
Asked whether drug trafficking could be behind the attacks, he said the possibility was being investigated. He said there had been many arrests recently, to the point that “we don’t know where to put the detainees”.
“There have been arrests, networks have been dismantled, and others are being created, either individually or in an organised way, but our job is to keep pursuing them. And to strike at the root of the evil,” he said.
Asked whether there was evidence of delivery workers’ involvement in these networks, Mr Fytiris said some workers could become instruments and be the “hands” of a network. “Our role is to pursue them from the hands all the way to the head,” he said.
Source: CNA
