Over the last eight years (2000-2008) we have seen important and positive changes in the security sector of the Republic of Serbia. Those changes are one of the main products of Serbia’s gradual, sometimes laborious, yet ongoing democratization and liberalisation.

There are three organisations in Serbia with these responsibilities; the Security-Information Agency (SIA), the Military Security Agency (MSA) and the Military Intelligence Agency (MoI). The SIA is directly subordinated to the government and has the status of a special republic organisation, while both the MSA and MoI are organisational units (administrative bodies) within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) subordinated to the defence minister, and thus also to the government.

Prisons should be ‘safe places’; there should be no riots and escapes, and should not be a places to plan or commit criminal offences. The situation in Serbia, however, does not meet these requirements, as will be shown below.

In all previous studies of corruption in Serbian police the same risks were identified, and major one among them is politicization, BCSP Researcher Sasa Djordjevic said at the press conference in the Media Center.

Police corruption control and social consequences of corruption in the police in Serbia are two main topics of the seventh issue of Collection of Policy Papers on Police Reform in Serbia.

Three out of four Serbian citizens think there has been an increase in violence in the last few years. This percentage is particularly alarming in Belgrade (84%) and among young people (82%). Citizens are most concerned with individual violence: bullying in schools, domestic violence, and the violence associated with drug addiction and crime.

The latest issue of Collection of Policy Papers propose answers on building safe community in Serbia, the position of the police in the new Criminal Procedure Code, and the role of ethics in policing.

The delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly met with the representatives of the BCSP during their visit to Serbia, which also included meetings with the high state officials.

Professor Dr. Miroslav Hadžić. Dangraf and the Centre for Civil-Military Relations, Belgrade, 2004