Significant drops in temperature pose a potential threat to the lives and health of homeless, elderly and lonely people. During this period, the risk of death also applies to intoxicated people staying outdoors or in abandoned and unheated buildings.
The operation is intended to provide assistance and expand information about places where homeless people stay, provide them with essential information about shelters, hostels and soup kitchens, and offer all possible assistance within the scope of the officers’ powers. Together with other people involved in the operation, including Municipal Police officers and employees of the Municipal Social Welfare Centre, police officers inspect allotments and other known places where homeless people stay, providing them with essential assistance. They inform them about the dangers associated with falling temperatures and about places where they can seek shelter from the cold.
Police officers remind the public that every year in Poland there are cases of homeless and lonely people dying from hypothermia. Therefore, as in previous years, Jeleniogórscy officers are taking preventive measures to ensure that as few such cases as possible occur and that everyone who needs help receives it. They regularly inspect places where homeless people may be staying. During this period, they also pay attention to people under the influence of alcohol, as these people are most at risk of freezing to death. Most often, they are so drunk that they are unable to walk unaided. In such cases, depending on the circumstances, police officers take them to the warming shelter, which is open daily from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., or place them in police custody to sober up. Such people most often do not feel the cold because of the alcohol they have consumed, making them particularly vulnerable to death from hypothermia in low temperatures.
Jeleniogórscy officers appeal to all residents of our region to inform the police and other services about anyone they notice sitting at a bus stop or in a park, as well as anyone under the influence of alcohol or in a similar situation that could lead to hypothermia. – Let us not pass such people by indifferently; in such a situation, it is enough to react and notify the relevant services. Let us remember that someone’s life may depend on our involvement and help, says podinsp. Edyta Bagrowska, spokesperson for the Jeleniogórska police.
KMP Jelenia Góra/ii