KOMENDA STOLECZNA POLICJI

Their core work

Komenda Stoleczna Policji is the Warsaw Metropolitan Police Headquarters — one of Europe's largest urban law enforcement agencies, responsible for policing the Polish capital and its surrounding region. In EU research, they function as an operational end-user partner: they bring real-world law enforcement requirements into technology development projects, helping researchers design tools that work in actual field conditions rather than only in laboratories. Their H2020 participation spans two distinct threat domains — conventional explosives security and biological/CBRN threats — where they contribute practitioner knowledge on detection needs, deployment constraints, and operational procedures. For technology developers building security tools, they offer something rare: validated access to a major European capital police force willing to test and provide feedback on prototype systems.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 involvement (EXERTER, 2018) was network- and policy-oriented: building European connections among explosives specialists, agreeing on standards, and sharing practitioner knowledge across borders. The more recent project (HoloZcan, 2021) marks a clear shift toward advanced instrumentation — AI-powered holographic microscopy for detecting aerosolized biological pathogens in the field. The trend is movement from coordination and standardization work toward hands-on engagement with sophisticated detection technology at the frontier of CBRN security.

They are moving deeper into advanced biological threat detection, suggesting future collaborations around CBRN sensors, AI-assisted microscopy, and field-deployable pathogen identification would find a willing and credible operational partner.

How they like to work

They have never coordinated a project — in both cases they joined as a participant, which is the typical pattern for law enforcement agencies in EU security research: sought out by technology developers who need operational validation, not project management. Despite only two projects, they worked alongside 28 distinct partners across 14 countries, indicating participation in large, well-funded consortia where their end-user status carried weight with EU evaluators. Working with them means gaining access to a major capital city police force, but not a project driver — they follow the research agenda rather than set it.

Through just two projects, they engaged with 28 unique partners spanning 14 countries — a broad European footprint that reflects the scale of the security research consortia they join. Their network is pan-European rather than regionally concentrated.

What sets them apart

As the Warsaw Metropolitan Police — policing a capital city of nearly two million people — they bring operational legitimacy that almost no research institution can replicate: real cases, real threat environments, and real procurement authority if a technology proves itself. EU security research consortia benefit directly from their involvement because evaluators favor projects with credible law enforcement end-users, and because their feedback shapes tools that can actually be adopted. For any project developing detection or response technology for urban security threats, this organization is a high-value partner precisely because they are practitioners, not researchers.

Highlights from their portfolio

• HoloZcan
  Their largest-budget project (€359,488) and technically most advanced: combining deep learning with digital holographic microscopy to detect aerosolized biological pathogens in field settings — an unusually sophisticated CBRN technology for a police force end-user partner.
• EXERTER
  A long-running (2018-2023) pan-European explosives specialists network that positioned Warsaw Police within a continent-wide community of security practitioners focused on standardization and knowledge transfer.