POLICE

This overview is one of the outputs of the regional project “Western Balkans Security Barometer” (WBSB), led by the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) in partnership with the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) in Serbia. This edition of the WBSB presents the findings of this survey conducted simultaneously in Kosovo and Serbia in September - October 2020.

Citizens of Serbia simultaneously have mutually contradictory views on national and personal security, as well as on the relationship with institutions, according to a public opinion poll presented at a BCSP online event held on November 24.

The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) strongly condemns police brutality and demands an urgent investigation into police conduct towards protesters who gathered in central Belgrade last night. The citizens have a right to peacefully express dissatisfaction with the way the government is combating the COVID-19 pandemic and the government should stop furthering social polarisation, which threatens to develop into a permanent state of violence.

This analysis by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) concludes that during the 52 days it spent in a state of emergency, Serbia failed the test of democracy, thanks to a series of failings and irregularities in the conduct and control of the security sector.

State of emergency introduced because of epidemic is not a legal ground for total curfew and it would raise a number of issues. Total curfew is profoundly unconstitutional and not in line with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, stated BCSP Director Igor Bandovic during the live appearance on TV N1. Reminiscing on the present situation in Hungary, BCSP Director pointed out that the state of emergency must not be abused with a goal to introduce an authoritarian system of government, in which the discretionary powers of those who rule would be without accountability. This report is republished from N1 website and originally is available here.

There is a real danger that communal militia will become the means of party recruitment and protection of government, wrote BCSP researcher Sasa Djordjevic.

{image1} The focus on results instead on the processes is necessary for the progress of Serbia's accession negotiations with the EU in the area of ​​justice, freedom and security, it was concluded at the meeting of the Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union (NCEU) on Chapter 24 and the Negotiating Group on Justice, Freedom and Security Issues Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) organized on ...

It is necessary to perceive citizens as allies, and actively involve them in budget planning in order to fulfil their security needs - this was highlighted at the event organized by Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) in Nis, on December 18th 2018. Opening the panel discussion, BCSP Researcher Sasa Djordjevic emphasized that the budget for 2019 was adopted without a proper debate in the Assembly, and that that ...

"I realized when I started to work in the police that we did not even learn about the basics of policing in the Academy. Every student of this Academy should spend at least a year doing elementary police work to get to know the job and issues, so they could later be a good manager."