Citizens in the Western Balkans view civil society as active participants in the prevention of and combating corruption, and in the elimination of its consequences.

By Sofija Mandić, Saša Đorđević (BCSP) / Photo: Naoyuki Yamagishi

This paper is intended to stimulate debate about the role of civil society in the fight against police corruption. The text starts by describing the role of civil society in preventing and combating police corruption. This is followed by a presentation of the 2016 POINTPULSE survey findings on different opinions on the role of civil society in the fight against corruption. Recommendations are presented at the end of the paper.

Roles

Two important documents promote civil society activities aimed at reducing police corruption.

Every state which has signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption is obliged to take measures to encourage active participation by civil society in the fight against corruption, as well as measures to increase public awareness about the existence and causes of corruption and its importance.

In November 2011 representatives of police, internal oversight bodies and anti-corruption agencies from Council of Europe and European Union member states adopted the Laxenburg Declaration, which requires states to encourage greater participation by CSOs in monitoring police work and fighting corruption.

Tools and Opportunities

Civil society is included in the monitoring as part of the external oversight of police work and should keep track of the activities of the police service and flag up any irregularities.

It should be noted that civil society does not carry out external oversight of police work either directly or independently, as it is unable to become directly involved in police work, nor can it directly alter rules and procedures for police work.

However, this does not mean that the role of civil society is meaningless. On the contrary, there are four ways for civil society to participate in the fight against police corruption. Civil society can:

1. Help to strengthen democratic control of the police;
2. Encourage an improvement in public confidence in police work;
3. Assess the compliance of police work with international standards;
4. Help the police to be a public service.

These four roles for civil society in the fight against police corruption can be implemented in practice in seven ways:

1. Continuously monitoring and evaluating police work;
2. Publicly advocating a reduction in police corruption;
3. Protecting whistleblowers;
4. Promoting ethics and responsible police work;
5. Participating in community policing;
6. Training police officers in anti-corruption measures;
7. Participating in devising and implementing anti-corruption measures for the police.

Perception

More than a half of the Western Balkans population believe that civil society should participate in fighting corruption.

Respondents see the role of civil society in the fight against corruption in different ways. However, the most frequently provided answers indicate that citizens expect civil society organizations (CSOs) to become directly involved in the fight against corruption (28%), to cooperate with the state in the fight against corruption (27%), and – only then – to explore and propose recommendations for the fight against corruption (17%) and provide assistance to its victims (11%).

Citizens believe that CSOs should take an active role in fighting corruption, mostly in Albania and Montenegro.

A quarter of the Western Balkans population believes that CSOs and the state should collaborate in fighting corruption, utmost in Macedonia.

As the response that CSOs should directly engage in the fight happens to be the most frequent, there is the impression that there is also an expectation that CSOs should be the carriers of activities that happen to be the job of state institutions.

These results almost fully coincide with those from the 2015 POINTPULSE survey, with a slightly higher support to the cooperation between the civil society and the administration given in Kosovo (25% versus last year’s 16%) and in Bosnia and Herzegovina (25% versus last year’s 15%).

Conclusion

Two conditions must be met in order to increase civil society participation in the fight against corruption.

The first is the need to strengthen the capacities of CSOs related to police work and to the reasons why police corruption has a specific character compared to corruption in other state bodies.

Second, the ministries of interior or police forces must explain transparently how it will achieve its strategic goal of strengthening cooperation with civil society.

Meeting these conditions will create an environment in which it is possible for civil society to play its role in the fight against corruption and use all available means of intervention.

Recommendations

1. It is necessary for civil society organizations in the Western Balkans dealing with the fight against corruption to deepen their knowledge of the specifics of police work and culture of the police.
2. Civil society organizations should strengthen cooperation with organizations engaged in investigative journalism in order to uncover specific cases of police corruption.
3. It is necessary to increase the intensity of cooperation between civil society and police trade unions in order to improve understanding of police work and prevent police corruption.
4. The Ministry of Interior should communicate, in a transparent manner, how it will achieve its strategic goal of strengthening cooperation with civil society in the Western Balkans.
5. The Ministry of Interior and civil society should act together to encourage further implementation of the concept of community policing, as this will increase the accountability of the police and help prevent police corruption.