Integrity Test of the Police Needs to Be Regulated by Law in Order to Prevent Abuses

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Integrity tests for police officers are not defined precisely enough by the Law on Police and should not be used as proxy investigative actions in judicial proceedings, but only targeted and previously announced, it was concluded at the conference organized on 24 May 2016 in the Media Centre in Belgrade.

At the panel discussion, organized on the occasion of publication of the policy paper titled Testing the Integrity of Police Officers, it was emphasized that this measure cannot be used as a magic wand for eradicating corruption from the police, contrary to what has been announced in public. It was also concluded that it is necessary to precisely stipulate who can initiate this procedure and how to prevent its abuse.

“The by-law that is supposed to allow for the implementation of integrity test is still not adopted and, as defined in the new Law on Police, this measure does not fit into the existing legal framework. The Constitution of Serbia demands that all restrictions of human rights have to defined only by law, whereas integrity tests envisages similar investigative measures as does the Criminal Procedure Code. However, contrary to the measures defined by the CPC, the Sector of Internal Control is not required to contact the prosecutor’s office or the court in order to apply them in the process of implementing integrity test,”Sofija Mandic pointed out, who works as the legal researcher at BCSP and is the co-author of the publication.

SIC is the Key Actor in Stregthening Police Integrity

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Mandic pointed out that the public opinion poll results show that only 4% of the Serbian citizens think that corruption is not present within the police and that the SIC should be responsible for tackling corruption in police. She added that the statistics shows that, during the last five years, there were approximately 130 criminal charges brought against police officers for corruption on annual basis. If taken into account that there is approximately 32 thousands police officers this figure most definitely does not reflect reality to a great extent, Mandic concluded.

The need for integrity testing to be regulated by the law, as well as to strengthen the SIC within MoI that is currently directly responsible to the Minister who can issue directives and guidelines to influence its work, were the two issues emphasized by Milos Jankovic, Deputy Ombudsman.

“The manner in which integrity testing is to be implemented, as well as the consequences based on its results, needs to be regulated by the law and not through a by-law, which is a legal act lower in the hierarchy. However, the laws in Serbia are being adopted and amended so rapidly that we barely get the chance to test them by implementing them in the field. Moreover, it is also necessary for this system to have developed mechanisms for internal control and external oversight. SIC is in charge of obtaining the evidence that should indicate if someone committed a criminal offence, but the Minister is the one who decides whether the issue will be brought to the prosecutor’s office,” said Jankovic and added that there is a need to clearly delimit integrity tests, which are implemented without a court order, and the special investigative measures during the court proceedings for which there is a need for a court order.

Integrity Test as a Basis for Career Advancement in Police

BCSP’s researcher who authored the comparative section of the study, Sasa Djordjevic, said there is no uniform international standard that could be recommended as an ideal model for implementation in Serbia but that each country introduces this measure according to its needs. Djordjevic emphasized that integrity tests are most often used to prevent corruption in police or for initiating the disciplinary proceeding and, in some cases, as a basis for career advancement.

“Integrity test has been first introduced in the ‘70s in New York, due to a rampant corruption within police, and throughout the upcoming decades it spread as a good practice in the most parts of Europe. Today, its most sophisticated application is present in Australia. In Serbia, there have been announcements of introducing integrity test as early as 2012, but even today it is not precisely defined, which is why it can be used as a powerful tool for political purposes within the police. In addition to targeted tests, there are also random ones, which bear greater risks for abuse,” BCSP’s researcher concluded.

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The MoI did not accept the call for participation at the panel discussion, submitted by BCSP, which is the reason why many of the questions of the expert audience members were left unanswered. Around 50 representatives of the international organizations, embassies, independent state institutions, police unions, civil society organizations and the media were present at the conference.

The conference and the publication are a part of the project “Strengthening Capacities of the Ombudsman” supported by the British Embassy to the Republic of Serbia, as well as the “Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust” projectsupported by the EU. The views and opinions presented in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the EU, the Ombudsman or the British Embassy in Belgrade.