Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust (POINTPULSE)

Five civil society organizations – Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), Centre for Security Studies (CSS) from Sarajevo, Institute Alternative (IA) from Montenegro and Kosovo Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) from Prishtina – networked into POINTPULSE (Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust) aimed to oversight of police integrity in the Western Balkans.

See: Infographic

Objectives

Overall objective(s): Contribute to increased trust and confidence in the law enforcement agencies in the Western Balkans by fighting police corruption and promoting police integrity.

Specific objective(s): Established regional civilian oversight network in the Western Balkans fully competent to understand and monitor the state of police integrity and advocate for policy changes in the region.

Activities

The project partners will implement the following activities: 1. Establishing the fully functional oversight network of civil society organizations: Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust (POINTPULSE). 2. Developing POINTPULSE methodological framework for analysing police corruption and providing a coherent, comprehensive framework for assessing the state of play regarding police integrity. 3. Monitoring and benchmarking police integrity in the Western Balkans (including public opinion survey, production of analysis, country reports and annual report). 4. Influencing policy makers and raising awareness on police integrity (including working breakfast with representatives of the regional initiatives, panel discussions, online POINTPULSE platform, media feature stories and annual conference).

Results

• POINTPULSE network established with participation of five regional civil society organizations and with clear organizational structure.
• POINTPULSE network structured.
• Strategic tracks for opportunities on expanded policy dialogue with law enforcement agencies in the Western Balkans and with 4 regional initiatives (RCC, RAI, SELEC and SEPCA) on critical police integrity issues.
• Strengthened capacities of 5 civil society organizations from the Western Balkans for monitoring and benchmarking police integrity.
• POINTPULSE network developed a civilian oversight tracking system for benchmarking police integrity, which includes a gender dimension.
• POINTPULSE network assessed the effects of police officers ‘violations on the public trust in police force in the Western Balkans.
• POINTPULSE network informed policy community in Europe on police integrity developments in the Western Balkans.

The project is supported by the European Union through Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) programme Civil Society Facility (CSF) EuropeAid/136-034/C/ACT/Multi. Content of the project is the sole responsibility of the BCSP and the views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of the EU. Project activities can be also followed via Twitter hashtags #BalkanCops and #POINTPULSE.