Polish police have reported heightened activity in recent days, resulting in a series of spectacular pursuits and arrests of wanted individuals. The most dramatic incidents occurred in Warsaw's Grochów district, where shots were fired, and in a region where an agricultural tractor plunged into a river during an escape attempt. Officers took numerous drunk drivers off the road, including a record-breaking case of a man who drove himself to a police station under the influence of alcohol.
Shots fired in Grochów
Police used firearms during a pursuit in Warsaw, leading to the arrest of a dangerous driver.
Tractor in the river
An attempt to flee from police ended with the driver of an agricultural tractor plunging into a riverbed.
Bounty hunters in action
Specialized police units detained a wanted fraudster on the A4 motorway and a fugitive in Silesia.
The last 48 hours have seen a series of intense actions by Polish police, focused on combating road crime and pursuing individuals evading justice. In Warsaw's Grochów district, a dangerous incident occurred where officers were forced to use firearms during a pursuit of a vehicle whose driver posed a direct threat to the life and health of bystanders. The perpetrator was ultimately apprehended, confirming the high determination of the services in extreme situations. An equally unusual course of events involved an intervention related to a pursuit of an agricultural tractor. The tractor driver, attempting to avoid a check, drove the vehicle directly into a riverbed. This event shows how unpredictable the reactions of people trying to avoid criminal responsibility can be. Road checks also became a key tool in the hands of criminal units from Grudziądz and Silesia, where several individuals wanted on arrest warrants were detained, including by specialized units colloquially known as 'bounty hunters'. In Poland, since the 1990s, penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol and failing to stop for a police check have been successively tightened, as a result of efforts to improve safety on public roads. Sobriety statistics, however, remain alarming. In the Lubusz and Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeships, drivers of trucks and passenger cars were detained for operating vehicles with between 1 and 1.5 per mille of alcohol in their system. A bizarre case involved a man who, after consuming alcohol, drove himself to a police station, leading to his immediate arrest. Officers also intervened in cases of property theft – from cast-iron chairs to insidious thefts carried out by security guards who, instead of guarding stores, robbed them themselves. Arrest warrants remain an effective tool, thanks to which three people were apprehended in Grudziądz in a single day. These actions fit into the broader context of the 'Sober Afternoon' operation, aimed at eliminating threats in land traffic ahead of the upcoming weekend.