Let us recall: on 12 February this year, police officers, together with a labour inspector, entered the Intermarché store. Why? Bolesławiec police received information that eavesdropping microphones had been installed in the supermarket. “We had reasonable grounds to suspect that a crime had been committed,” explains Adriana Szajwaj, spokesperson for the Bolesławiec police. “And we were obliged to check it.”

After the incident, Łukasz Dudzic, president of the company operating the Intermarché store, explained that the devices were visible and labelled. They were intended to improve customer service. The supermarket employees knew about them, so there could be no question of surveillance.

“After an hour, an inspector from the National Labour Inspectorate determined that no crime had been committed,” Dudzic recounts. Despite this, the police officers dismantled the microphones.

On 12 June, the president received a letter from the prosecutor’s office informing him of the “final discontinuation of the investigation”. “There was a suspicion that the installed microphones were illegal,” says district prosecutor Adam Zieliński. “We examined the matter thoroughly. The legal assessment is that, beyond any doubt, no crime was committed. I leave the moral and ethical assessment of this conduct to the store’s customers,” he adds.

In connection with the discontinuation of the investigation, the prosecutor’s office asked the president to collect the dismantled microphones. “I stated that I would not collect them,” Dudzic stresses. “I did not dismantle them, nor did I consent to their dismantling. I want the police to install them.”

What next?

If there is no response from the officers, the president will hire a company to install the devices. “That company will issue an invoice, and I will invoice the police for it,” says Łukasz Dudzic. “If the police do not want to pay—and I think they will not, because I have never yet encountered a Polish official admitting to a mistake—the matter will most likely end up in court.”

“When the police receive the invoice, they will respond to it in accordance with the procedures,” Adriana Szajwaj assures.

(information ii)