Corruption in the Kosovo Police

The Kosovo Police is ranked by citizens as the second least corrupted domestic institutions in Kosovo. Almost 1/3 of the respondents shared the perception that the Kosovo Police is corrupted.

By Plator Avdiu (KCSS) / Photo: S.A.
@PlatorAvdiu

Despite the high level of trust and relatively frequent contacts with the Kosovo Police , the latter appears to be affected by corruption based on citizens’ opinions. However, it is worth mentioning that, in comparison to the other institutions, the KP is ranked by citizens as the second least corrupted domestic institutions in Kosovo.

Accordingly, 41 percent of the respondents shared the perception that the KP is not corrupted, compared to 27 percent who pointed out the opposite. Whereas, 28 percent of the respondents claimed that the KP is somehow corrupted, and less than 5 percent did not know or had no opinion on the issue. Knowing that the KP is far from being perfect, also it can be said that the Kosovo citizens generally have positive attitudes when it comes to their perception on corruption within the KP.

The figure below shows the differences on respondents’ opinion regarding corruption in the KP according to their regions. Based on citizens’ perceptions of the respective regions, the respondents from Gjakova are those that appear to believe that the KP is corrupted more, compared to the other regions, where 43 percent of respondents thought that the KP is corrupted, followed by regions of Prizren (34 percent) and Ferizaj (31 percent). On the other hand, only 12 percent of citizens from the southern part of Mitrovica thought that the KP is corrupted, compared to 22 percent of respondents from Gjilan and Northern Mitrovica respectively who believed the KP was corrupted. Furthermore, 23 percent of the respondents from the region of Prishtina and 32 percent of those from Peja believed that the KP was corrupted.

This edition of the KSB also provides data and our interpretation about respondents’ opinion regarding the level of bribery in the KP, which is one of the most sensitive issues when it comes to measuring the police integrity. It is worth noting that information presented in the Figure 9 show the results only from those respondents who stated to have had direct contacts with the KP. This filter provides a more accurate data regarding the possibility of bribery within the KP. Accordingly, the results show that 95 percent of the respondents (or 567 of them) firmly stated that when in contact with the members of the KP, they were never asked to hand over money, gifts, or any other bribe to any of the police officers. In the meantime, only 2.3 percent of these respondents have admitted to have given money or gifts to police officers, while the rest stated that they paid lunch/dinner to police officers or promised a favour in return. Moreover, our observation from field research suggests that citizens are not well-informed about the forms of possible corruption within the KP. In addition, favours, such as lunch/dinner, or other favours potentially offered to the police officers have not been perceived as corruption by the respondents. This demonstrates that respondents could have been afraid to admit that they corrupted or bribed police officers when in contact with them. Also, there is no mechanism in place to verify opinions or perceptions of citizens regarding whether or not they in fact did or did not give money/gifts to the KP. Thus, the relevant Kosovo’s anti-corruption institutions should have creative public campaigns about the risks of all types of corruption.

The KSB survey also included a question regarding potential addresses as to where would citizens report corruption cases, of they encountered any, within the KP. The results show that 28 percent of the respondents would first report the case to the local Police station in general. Around 25 percent of the responded said that they would report such cases in the Anti-Corruption Agency, while 17 percent said that they would report it to the media. The potential other addresses as stated by the respondents accordingly are the PIK (13.1 percent), the Police station commander (6.7 percent), a friend who works within the Police (2.7 percent), non-governmental organizations (2.5 percent), whereas less than 6 percent of the respondents did not know where they would report on the police corruption cases.

As for their opinion on who should fight corruption within the PK, respondents believe that it is the Kosovo Government to be the first in line as one of the institutions who should fight corruption within the KP. Almost 30 percent of citizens stated that the latter should fight corruption within the KP, compare to 22 percent of those who said that it is the Anti-Corruption Agency the one who should fight the corruption in the KP. It should be noted that the Kosovo Government and the Anti-Corruption Agency enjoyed very low degrees of trust among Kosovo citizens during 2015. Moreover, 18 percent of the respondents believe that it is PIK’s responsibility to fight corruption in the KP. Only 8 percent of citizens thought that the State Prosecutor should fight the police corruption. The fact that such a low number of respondents listed the Prosecution’s Office as an institution who should be fighting corruption within the KP, suggests that the citizens either have little information on who should be responsible to fight corruption, or have low trust on the Office of the Prosecutor.