It is Necessary to Increase Trust in the Police

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Police in the region are faced with similar problems such as the politicization of the police or corruption in employment, it was pointed out at the debate in the Media Centre in Belgrade, which was organized by the regional network of civil society organizations POINTPULSEon Friday 27 February 2015.

The main motive for creating regional POINTPULSE network is the fact that the trust in the police is below the world average of 60% to 90%, said a researcher of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy Sasa Djordjevic. Trust in the Serbian police is 35%, which is a 5% increase when compared to the previous year, but less than in 2011 and 2012. In Bosnia and Herzegovina it is 55%, in Montenegro 44% and in Kosovo it is 43%. This is all below the world average, explained Djordjevic.

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The police efficiency is not only based on statistics but also on citizens confidence in policing and whether they feel protected, which together raises the question of police accountability, said Djordjevic and pointed out that the new announced Law on Police in Serbia should solve some of the problems. “Draft Law on Police has its good and bad sides. Human resource management is improved because the specific criteria for promotion are listed and competition for jobs is provided. It is not good that the Minister of Interior continues to appoint and dismiss heads of regional police departments. If so remains, the politicization of the police will continue to be a problem”, concluded Djordjevic.

“Citizens in Bosnia have quite a lot of trust in the police, but there is only 20-25% of confidence in the judiciary. The situation with the police is satisfying due to the fact that there exists a complex constitutional structure in which 22 police works that are quite independent”, said the secretary general of the Centre for Security Studies in Sarajevo Denis Hadzovic.

Hadzovic said that the laws governing policing are good, but that problem is implementation. In the past year, 67% of citizens have witnessed bribing of traffic police, while 57% of them believe that there is corruption in employment, and the most corrupt part in BIH is police director or minister, underlined Hadzovic.

Majority (72%) of Montenegrin citizens believe that corruption is ubiquitous, says researcher of the Institute Alternative from Podgorica Dina Bajramspahic.

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“It is well known that corruption in Montenegro is one of the biggest problems, as well as the connections between organized crime and political structures. The problem of police politicization is also excessive because the state is the largest employer in the country, where recruiting is done without merit criteria and with frequent unexplained shifts. Because of that, it is necessary to strengthen the control of the property cards of police officers”, underlined Bajramspahic. Another policing problem in Montenegro is overwhelming number of police officers. The EU Member States employ an average of 300 police officers per 100,000 of population, while in Montenegro this number is 808.

Researcher from the Kosovo Center for Security Studies in Pristina Plator Avdiu believes that it is necessary to strengthen the fight against police corruption, especially regarding public procurement because the money is being spent outside of legal procedures and regulations.

“The politicization, nepotism and procurement are three main risks of corruption in the police,” said Avdiu. He added that the Kosovo police is youngest institution in Europe, since it was developed only in the last 15 years. However, the police forces are among the oldest, if the average age of police officers is taken into account. This problem should be solved through the adoption of the new Law on Early Retirement of Police Officers, which would enable the police forces of Kosovo to rejuvenate itself through the retirement of about 1,000 police officers from the service and employing the same number of younger ones, said Avdiu.

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