More than 20,000 policemen, firemen, border and prison guards gathered on Tuesday in Warsaw to call for better working conditions and pay increases.
Wearing their uniforms and blowing whistles and horns, protesters marched through the centre of Warsaw to the prime minister's office in what they described as the biggest protest in the history of the Polish security services.
A representative of a police trade union leading the protest said they wanted to call attention to the difficulty for the police and security services in attracting new employees and experienced officers leaving.
According to the Polish police website experienced officers earn the equivalent of around 1,000 euros ($1,156 approx) per month, while junior positions can be less than half that amount.
The protest came just two weeks after thousands of public sector workers and trade union members protested in the capital demanding pay rises and pointing to the booming Polish economy and high spending by the Polish government.
Dariusz Wojcieszak, a fire fighter from Poznan in western Poland, questioned why he and his colleagues were "left to the end and forgotten" when the Polish economy was doing so well.
On their route the protesters briefly stopped at the presidential palace where a presidential official accepted their list of demands. The protest comes ahead of local elections in Poland, scheduled for October 21.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, Reuters