In 1990, new chiefs of Police were appointed in all 49 provinces. In the course of the internal verification in 1990, 3027 members of the militia gave up the service. Due to fears about the decisions regarding retirements, the number of officers did not decrease. About 50 thousand completely new employees, demanding at least a basic training, appeared in the ranks of the Police by the beginning of 1995.

The leading role in the police education system was granted to the Higher Police Training School in Szczytno, founded by a government order dated September 10^th, 1990. Apart from this, the network of the police education system was created in the second half of the year 1990: a Police Training Centre in Legionowo, a Police School in Słupsk, a Police School in Pila and various site training centres.

On January 6th, 1999 a Police School in Katowice was founded. On the other hand, the growth in the number of the old forms of crime and the appearance of new ones forced the management of the department to create similar divisions within the Police as the ones functioning in Western Europe. These included: a Department for Drugs and Other Social Pathologies, Department for crimes related to frauds and a National Department of "Interpol" or Central Bureau of Investigation. An important element is the help of the Western European Police, both the short-term help, that is, the involvement in current co-operation, as well as the help resulting in long-term projects, e.g.: The International Special Training Centre for Police on the premises of the Police Training Centre in Legionowo and the Central European Police Academy, where one of the co-hosts, is the Higher Police Training School in Szczytno.

On January 1st, 1990, as administrative reform was being introduced, the Police started to function under a new organisational structure. Presently, 16 provincial police headquarters, a police headquarters in the capital city which is a municipal police headquarters but has the same rights as the provincial police headquarters, 329 district police headquarters and 2072 police stations were subordinated to the National Police Headquarters.

This meant that the Police has stopped being a fully independent formation subordinated exclusively to the National Police Headquarters, and it became a part of the so called combined provincial administration. This location enables the local governments to assign tasks regarding the prevention of crime. They also have the option to increase the number of policemen on its territory by financing full-time police employment. The organised crime and drug prevention services who operate reconnaissance matters and investigations were excluded from the supervision of the province governors and district administrators (starosts). The local government authorities evaluate the work of the Police units within a given area and the superiors of the policeman deal with the evaluation of his work.

The system of selection for management positions was changed too, introducing competition and a process of permanent education for the individuals commanding the Police units.

Following the changes in the Act, the whole Police changed as well, a clear change of generations took place within it. The flaws which are apparent, in spite of everything, in the everyday fight against crime, should be a challenge for the Police in the 21^st century.

Based on information from the National Police Headquarters