Toruń’s New Town Market Square will become a meeting place for residents, families and municipal guards from across the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region this Friday, 28 August, as the City Guard celebrates 35 years of municipal and local government guard services.
The anniversary will be marked with a free public educational and prevention festival from 9:30 am to 12:00 noon. Residents of Toruń, visitors to the city and people from across the region are invited to attend.
A morning of safety, demonstrations and practical advice
While the event has been organised to celebrate the anniversary, its focus will be firmly on meeting the public and showing how the work of municipal guards has developed over the past three and a half decades.
City and municipal guards from across Kujawsko-Pomorskie will set up information and activity stands, giving visitors an opportunity to learn about the prevention, educational and public safety work carried out in their communities.
For children and young people, the festival will offer practical activities and games centred on staying safe and understanding what municipal guards do. Families can expect an accessible introduction to everyday safety rather than a formal presentation, making the event suitable for different ages.
Adults and older residents will also find advice and educational activities covering everyday security, responding appropriately when something goes wrong and preventing potentially dangerous situations.
Free access to specialist advice
One of the more unusual elements of the anniversary event will be the opportunity to speak directly with specialist members of the City Guard.
Visitors will be able to seek free advice from officers with expertise including:
emergency medical response
self-defence
preventing domestic violence
mediation
psychology
The sessions are intended to give residents practical information they can use in everyday life. Questions can cover subjects such as basic first aid, responding safely during an emergency, fundamental self-defence techniques and the psychological side of personal safety.
For residents who may not normally have an opportunity to speak with specialists in these areas, the informal setting of the festival provides a useful chance to ask questions directly.
From public order to prevention and education
The 35th anniversary also provides an opportunity to look at the changing role of municipal guards in Poland.
While enforcing local regulations and helping to maintain public order remain important parts of the service, today's municipal guards also work extensively in prevention and education. Their activities can involve schools, public institutions, children and young people, older residents and community initiatives.
That broader role means that contact with residents is an important part of the work. The Toruń festival reflects this by bringing officers out of their usual duties and into a public space where residents can meet them, ask questions and find out more about the services available in their communities.
For Toruń, it is also a chance to meet representatives of municipal and local government guard services from elsewhere in the region and see the different approaches they use in their day-to-day work.
35 years of municipal guard services in the region
The anniversary marks 35 years since the establishment of municipal and local government guard services in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region.
For the officers taking part, the event is both a celebration of the service's history and an opportunity to look at the work being carried out today. For the public, it offers a straightforward way to meet the people responsible for a range of local safety and prevention activities.
The festival takes place on Friday, 28 August 2026, from 9:30am to 12:00 noon at Rynek Nowomiejski in Toruń. Admission is free.
Whether visiting with children, looking for practical safety advice or simply curious about the work of the City Guard, residents and visitors are welcome to drop in during the morning.
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Image credit: Agnieszka Bielecka, CC BY NC 4.0, torun.pl
