TIRANA — New study published by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) seeks to contribute to the efforts of appraising the implementation of community policing in Albania.
@IDM_Tirana / Photo: Flagert
No independent assessment has been made on community policing development in Albania since the adoption of the Law of State Police and policing strategy eight years ago. The following questions have remained unanswered: how the Albanian State Police and local self-government have performed in an effort to establish consolidated and mutual cooperation; how the problems and concerns of the local communities have been institutionally fed into the policing system, how effective the selected mechanisms have been in strengthening this cooperation, to what extent this collaboration has worked, and what major problems have hindered the process.
In consideration of this context, this study seeks to contribute to the efforts of appraising the implementation of community policing in Albania. It focuses on both the evaluation of the processes of interaction of the police and local self-government, as well as the outcome of this interaction, namely the yearly regional policing strategies. Both processes and outputs are examined in terms quantity and quality.
The processes are examined by the density of interactions between the Albanian State Police and local self-government, whereas the yearly regional policing strategies are examined in terms of the regularity and the extent to which they have contributed to improving the communities’ safety and security and increasing the level of mutual trust and responsiveness of the both actors.
The beginning of the study describes the methodology and philosophy of community policing as well as the challenges encountered in the course of its implementation in different contexts. Further, the study continues with an analysis of community policing implementation in Albania by focusing on the enforcement of the legislation and strategy. Finally, the study provides few conclusions and recommendations to Albanian State Police and local self-governments.
Click here to download the English and Albanian version of the study.
Civil society organizations
dedicated to oversight of police integrity.