Iran Police Call For More Resources To Help Personnel

The deputy commander of Iran's police says the livelihood of their personnel is one of the main concerns of the Law Enforcement Force, amid high inflation.

Brigadier-General Qasem Rezaei told the ILNA news agency Friday that housing units and other facilities would be provided for officers to improve their living conditions. Rezaei also said that salaries paid to police were not in a par with the important services they provided.

Late in January, dozens of members of the armed forces and retirees protested in several Iranian cities over living and working conditions. Teachers, nurses, firefighters, prison guards, and employees of the judiciary have all held protest rallies or strikes to demand higher salaries.

Earlier in January, the spokesman for Iran's police said that while salaries for police officers had increased several times in the previous Iranian year (ending March 20, 2021), the government could not afford substantially higher salaries.

Akbar Shokat, head of the construction workers union, recently claimed prices had risen five to ten-fold since 2018, when the United States introduced ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions. The International Monetary Fund gives consumer price inflation of 34.6 percent in 2019, 36.4 percent in 2020, 39.3 percent in 2021 and projects 25.7 percent for 2022 – giving an overall increase to date of over 255 percent since 2018.

Iran Statistical Center and media, however, have reported higher inflation in 2021, especially for food items that increased more than 60 percent.