Appeals to Kosovo Police up, but credibility remains

Kosovo Police Inspectorate is the mechanism independent of Kosovo Police, for police control and respect for human rights.

The issue of raising the number of complaints filed by citizens in the Police Inspectorate has also been mentioned recently in the U.S. State Department's report on human rights in the world in 2021, where it speaks of Kosovo.

IPK: During 2021, 213 police employees subject to investigation

Kosovo Police Inspectorate spokesman Arber Beka confirms that this institution has accepted and managed 2,013 complaints and information, or 355 complaints more than in the preceding year.

“over the past year (2021), as the subject of the IPK investigation, have overall been 213 Kosovo Police officers. Under measures and recommendations over the past year, a total of 38 arrests [34 police officials and 4 suspected citizens, involved in criminal activities in cases when Kosovo Police officers were investigated], 85 recommendations for suspensions have been made, as well as six recommendations for transfers. In principle, all his recommendations The IPK, last year, has been ignored by Kosovo Police”, Beka says.

Also, according to the IPK's report for 2021, this institution has prosecuted 106 cases of criminal proceedings in the State Prosecutor's Office against criminal suspects.

The most frequent criminal acts investigated by IPK in 2021 are: abuse during the exercise of official office or public authorisation in 33 cases, misuse of office or official authority in 27 cases, slight bodily injury in 23 cases, rowage in 13 cases, and domestic violence in 12 cases.

Factors That Affected Raised Citizen's Appeals

Beka stresses that on the basis of tests the IPK has done, increasing the number of citizens' complaints to the Kosovo Police refers, at least two factors.

The first factor, according to him, concerns increasing the level of credibility of citizens at the Kosovo Police Inspectorate. Meanwhile, the second factor, he says, has to do with the Kosovo Police's additional commitments in relation to the pandemic of corruption, restrictions on freedom of movement and commitments its members have had on operational plans to raise the security level in the country.

Increasing the number of citizens' complaints to Kosovo Police officials in 2021, according to him, is awareness of both sides.

<x) The IPK, in relation to allegations of eventual legal violations on the part of police officials, is also the Kosovo Police themselves who often take various measures and activities to strengthen integrity within the organisation” itself, Beka points out.

A study by the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies on citizens' perception of the integrity of public institutions in Kosovo, published in early March 2022, has revealed that 70 percent of respondents have expressed confidence in the Kosovo Police Institute.

Shpat Balaj, researcher of the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, says the citizens' trust in the Kosovo Police is reasonable, regardless of how, during last year, during the corruption pandemic, when the restrictive measures the Government of Kosovo imposed, there have been scenes published in local media when police officials have exceeded authorisations. This has left bad taste, he says, but not because of police or citizens, but in many cases, due to uncertainty about those measures.

It's just that uncertainty about measures and access in general to restrictions that have been aimed at preventing the spread of COVID. Citizens have realised that Kosovo Police have been restricted and are simply implementing those measures. Consequently, the frustrations that have been with the measures such as these have not been attributed to the Kosovo Police, but rather are seen as the problem of central institutions, which Kosovo Police are only applying to”, Balaj says.

High number of detainees in two IPK shares

Meanwhile, the spokesman The IPK, Beka, points out that even the first quarter of 2022 has marked easy lifts of 4.5 percent of citizens' complaints in relation to the first quarter of 2021, when 422 such cases were recorded. But, according to him, the number of police officials arrested in the first quarter of this year is bigger than last year, but not because of citizens' complaints, Beka says.

With the authorisation of the relevant prosecution, in two operations conducted at three border crossings, the IPK has arrested a considerable number of police officials.

“We are talking about operations, where the first is coded by the name Pikaʹ and where a total of 50 officials have been arrested, of them 40 police officials and two customs officials. Then there was Pika 2a, where 26 officials were arrested. In both cases, suspicions by the Prosecution and IPK investigators have been mainly about two criminal acts: taking bribes and misusing official position or authority”, Beka points out.

Police arrested: “Is there any coffee for these men?”

Shpend Balaj from the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies stresses that the latest shares of the Kosovo Police Inspectorate that resulted from the arrests of police officials are among the institutions' major shares in fighting corruption within the Kosovo Police. But, according to him, the Kosovo Police themselves have been co-operative in investigating corruption within the framework of this institution.

But, according to him, in this context, the problem is that such shares and investigations are not extended even to the central level or to the Kosovo Police Central Directorate.

“essentially, these shares are extended to regional directors and lower degrees are being arrested. This potentially means that the widespread spread of corruption within the Kosovo Police is indicator that even higher positions and degrees, as well as not necessarily only at the regional level, but also at the central level, could be included”, Balaj points out.

According to research by the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, at least in the last three years, Kosovo Police and the Kosovo Security Force are at the top of the list of more reliable institutions, according to citizens' perception.