Police President Vladislav Husák is still unpacking.

A pile of odds and ends sits in a corner of his spacious office in the Police Presidium building in Prague 6: books, folders, a steering wheel from a small boat and a large, framed Helmut Newton nude print lean against the wall.

Other things have already found a home: medals and uniform caps, a high-end bottle of whiskey and a portrait of Napoleon that stares out from a wall near his desk.

Husák, 40, doesn't say whether he takes any particular inspiration from the famous general, but his role as the country's top police officer — he was appointed president Sept. 21 — seems akin to leading an army through an ugly battle.

In the past six months the police department has taken a number of critical blows, chief among them the escape of billionaire Radovan Krejčíř, its handling of CzechTek (Husák was the head officer in charge of the controversial response at the time) and the department's failure to respond to a rally of neo-Nazis in north Bohemia.

The department's missteps have hurt its image, and mending that image is one of his top priorities.

During an hour-long interview with The Prague Post, he talks of the novels that first inspired him with dreams of being a lawman, and how his two daughters — both champion aerobics athletes — are not likely to follow in his footsteps.

But he talks most about the need for the police department to crack down on corruption within its ranks and become more open and accessible to the public and the media.

The Prague Post: You have said that one of your priorities is to make the police department more open and responsive, both to the public and to the media. How will you do that?

Vladislav Husák: The police should be a lot more open in communication with citizens as well as with local and regional administration, also with politicians. At the same time, there should be more openness inside the police itself. That too is important. We want to divide the positions of press spokesperson and [public information] manager. In the past there was one person doing both and this often created a lot of pressure on this person. We also want to open new model police stations based on quality. These places should be pleasant, open to the people, and the police there should care about people and fulfill the motto: to serve our citizens. There should be no upset, grumpy policemen inside some shabby police station.

TPP: What about foreigners? They don't always find police receptive. There's a language deficit. Will there be efforts to improve language skills?

VH: This too is a long-distance run. Those working for the Czech police aren't aliens who happen to be in the Czech Republic. They are ordinary citizens who became policemen. Sadly, we had a foreign-language knowledge deficit here left over from before 1989. Time will solve this. We have no problems with the young generation of policemen. They learn languages at all school levels. The problem is with the previous generation of policemen.

TPP: How has policing — and the department's function — changed since the Czech Republic joined the European Union and borders have opened up? This country has historically been a busy transit point in everything from drugs to human trafficking.

VH: That's a very difficult question, as it hasn't been a very long time since we joined the EU. We are taking notice of the fact that Europe is becoming more open, that traveling is becoming easier, and with it comes criminal activities that too travel from one state to another. There are of course problems with drugs, women trafficking — that goes without saying. But for the time being we have noticed no significant terrorism-related problems.

TPP: Your predecessor, Jiří Kolář, once said that corruption was the single biggest challenge confronting the Czech Republic. Former Supreme State Attorney Maria Benešová said that corruption is endemic throughout government and municipal authorities. What is your view of corruption and fighting it?

VH: I consider corruption a phenomenon that appears in the police as well as in our society in general and one that cannot be underestimated. Our analysis shows that the most 'corruption endangered' sections are the traffic police, foreign police and border police. We want to provide recording technologies for the traffic police that would monitor how a policeman deals with a person who committed a misdemeanor. ... We would also like to equip police cars with cameras that would shoot what is happening in front of and behind the police car. Another thing: a fixed list of fines. I am against any bargaining. Also, we want to limit as much as possible the use of cash in contact between police and citizens. We have already prepared a pilot project that should offer a different solution: cash-free payments, credit cards, and that would be another good step in fighting corruption.

TPP: Under what timeline?

VH: We are working on all of these policies.

TPP: Politicians have been famously leery of allowing so-called 'sting operations' to uncover corruption. Would you support stings?

VH: I am not in favor of this. Soon we'd be solving cases of sting agents going to local administration offices, ministries, company tenders, and I feel we would then become targets of certain provocations, not just the police, but on a national level. There are better ways of dealing with the problem.