The activities of police officers that conflict with their offical duties should be determined by the law

It is necessary to define exactly what are the activities in which members of the police should not be involved, and this area should be regulated by the new Law on Police, it was concluded during the panel discussion „Regulating the activities of police officers that conflict with their offical duties“, held on 7th November at the Library of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy.

“The first thing which should be done is to make a list of activities incompatible with the work of the police officers, providing that it must not be closed, but should be expanded over time. After making a list it is necessary to regulate what are the conditions and criteria which must be fulfilled in order to perform additional work that is not in conflict with the interests of the police profession, but also to allow a police officer to complain if he is baned to perform additional work”, said the BCSP researcher Sasa Djordjevic during the discussion.

BCSP recently released Infographic in which proposed recommendations that should be implemented to regulate the activities of police which conflict with their offical duties.  BCSP Executive Director Predrag Petrovic pointed out that this area is just “touched” by the Law on Police, and it was left to be regulated by bylaw.

“Before speaking about the activities of police officers that conflict with their offical duties first must be clearly defined each position in the Serbian Ministry of Interior. What police officers can and can not do should not choose ministers or authorities in the police stations, but that must be clearly specified by the law”, said State Secreatry at the Ministry of Interior Vladimir Bozovic and announced that the Internal Control Sector of the Ministry of Interior will be significantly strengthened by employing 460 members instead of the current 50.

Chair of the Comision for public and private partnership Dragisa Jovanovic believes that it is not possible to provide an adequate level of security of the citizens without the cooperation of the police and the private sector. He pointed out that the Law on private security is necessary for the regulation of police officers in this field.

“In future, private security will be able to provide only those who have a license for that given by the state”, said Jovanovic, adding that the police should retain its authority, but that it is essential to clearly define their limits and introduce more sanctions.

{image2}Chief of Party at the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) Bogdan Gavanski pointed out that the cooperation of civil society with all other sectors of society in discussions like this is very important because without it there will not be substantial democratization of the society.

The panel discussion in the BCSP library brought together more than 30 representatives of state institutions, police unions, the business sector, civil society and international and diplomatic bodies. Reports from the conference are published by many media, such as the national news agency Tanjug, TV Prva, daily newspaper Danas, portal of public broadcaster RTS and portal of regional television in Eastern Serbia BEST.

The panel discussion „Regulating the activities of police officers that conflict with their offical duties“ is organized as part of the project “Partnership for Integrity in Security Sector”, which aims to support building the integrity and effective implementation of planned anti-corruption measures and policies in key institutions of the security sector through the promotion of external oversight.