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The police in Macedonia are a centralized force under the Ministry of the Interior, consisting of uniformed police, criminal police, and border police.

By Kaltrina Selimi (Analytica) / Photo: Reuters
@TrinaSelimi

The Macedonia’s security sector has its foundations from the previous system in ex-Yugoslavia, though many reforms took part since it became an independent state in 1991. With the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 90s, when the Yugoslav People’s Army left the country, the Macedonian police took over many of the tasks that are usually seen as applicable to the Armed Forces since it lacked Armed forces on its own. This contributed to the general opinion of that the Macedonian police often times has been perceived as one of the protectors of Macedonia’s independence in the early 90s considering it that part of its tasks included among others keeping the territorial integrity of the country.

There are three main points in time considering this context of Macedonia’s security sector reform:

  • 1991-2001 (independence to 2001 ethnic conflict),
  • 2001-2008 (post-conflict pre-NATO),
  • 2008-current (post- NATO veto).[i]

All these periods have contributed to various reforms across the security sector, and therefore of police. For example, the 2001 internal armed conflict and the Ohrid Framework Agreement pushed forward the idea for more ethnically sensitive governance and institutions, including ethnically reflective employment in police forces that were supposed to better represent and address the needs of all communities living in Macedonia.

Most of the reforms are either externally driven under EU or NATO integration umbrella or security disturbances like 2001 internal armed conflict which lead to a set of reforms.

Competences and organization

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) is the overall political body responsible for policing tasks. The work of the MoI is regulated by two main laws: the Law on Internal Affairs and the Law on Police. Its work and profile are stipulated into both laws and accompanied by a number of rule-books.

Under the authority of the Ministry, the duties of the Police according to the Law on Police are:

  • protection of life, personal safety, and property of the citizens;
  • protection of freedoms and rights of the human beings and the citizens, guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, the laws, and the ratified international agreements;
  • prevention of committing crimes and misdemeanors, detection and apprehension of the perpetrators of crimes and undertaking other specific measures, stipulated by law, for the prosecution of the perpetrators of such crimes;
  • maintaining the public order and peace;
  • regulation and control of the traffic;
  • control of the movement and residence of foreigners;
  • state border security and state border crossing control;
  • providing assistance and protection to the citizens in case of utmost necessity;
  • protection of specific persons and facilities and
  • other affairs determined by law.

The Bureau of Public Safety together with the Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence are the main units within the Ministry. Apart from these two, there is a special sector tasked to perform internal oversight, called Department of Internal Control, Criminal Investigations and Professional Standards (DICCIPS). The work of the Ministry of Interior (including the Police and the Counterintelligence Service) is also subject to external oversight and control. There is no special law outlining the work of the counterintelligence service.

The Training Centre, under the administration of the MoI, offers different types of police training, such as basic police training for beginners in the duration of 12 months; continuing – specialized Training for in-service police officers; management training for decision makers within the police force.

The number of staff currently within the MoI is about 11 thousand and 18% are women.

Organization of the Police

Border Police is an organizational unit that monitors and protects the borders of Macedonia. It is organized in four Sectors: North, South, East, West totaling of 1750 police officers. Lake Patrol Police is a part of the border police of the Republic of Macedonia operating in Ohrid and Prespa lakes.

Traffic Police handle daily traffic offenses, while the Helicopter Unit is an air support unit of the Macedonian Ministry of Interior. Its purpose is to provide aerial surveillance, border monitoring, VIP transport, search and rescue operations and aerial firefighting.

Special Operations Unit or “Tigers” are tasked to perform difficult operations in the fight against terrorism and protection of the security of the Macedonia in times of deteriorated security situation as well as helping civilian population in natural disasters. More specifically they deal with hostage situations, arresting dangerous criminal groups, providing support to high at risk VIP persons, rescue operations etc.

Rapid Deployment Unit is a special unit of the Macedonian police tasked to perform operations in mountain or rural areas, restore public law and order, provide assistance to other units and state institutions, anti-terrorist activities, high-risk operations, helping civilian population in times of natural disasters etc.

Members of the Special Support Unit are “ordinary” uniform police officers who if needed, assist other special units. Upon their need, they are involved in activities related to maintaining public law and order, protests or arrests.

Unit for maintenance of public order, security, and interventions are a recently established in order to preserve law and order in public gatherings including different types of protests. Most of its work is focused in the capital Skopje.

Alfa police Units is a special police unit for first response and interventions when it comes to serious crime. The unit operates in urban areas in the city of Skopje.

Oversight and control of the police

The legal framework[ii] has envisaged several institutions to do control and oversight on the work of the police: the Department of Internal Control, Criminal Investigations and Professional Standards (DICCIPS) within Ministry of Interior, the office of Ombudsman, the Macedonian Parliament and its Committee on Security and Defense and the Standing Inquiry Committee for Protection of Civil Freedoms and Rights.

The 2015 EU progress report about Macedonia among others also highlights the lack of independent external oversight mechanism for the police forces. The existing oversight mechanisms of the work of the police forces do not have the mandate to act upon complaints about breaches of the principles of legality, proportionality, and non-discrimination, as they cannot dismiss police officers from work or issue fines or other disciplinary punishments. They can only provide suggestions for the respective ministry to take disciplinary measures or to the public prosecutor if there is evidence of a criminal offense.

The main internal control actor of the Macedonian police is the Department of Internal Control, Criminal Investigations and Professional Standards (DICCIPS) that falls under the Ministry of Interior. The DICCIPS receives direct orders from the Minister.

Internal control

According to the Law on Internal Affairs, the DICCIPS is a separate and independent organizational unit of the Ministry of Interior which conducts internal control for the Ministry and implements procedures for assessing the legality of the actions of the employees in the Ministry of Interior.[iii] As such, DICCIPS can act on data, information, and knowledge that it has collected on its own, on complaints received from citizens or other legal entities, on requests from the police or the Ministry of Interior, or by direct order of the Minister of Interior.[iv] Complaints are usually received in police stations, where the police stations are obliged to inform the DICCIPS no later than twenty-four hours after the initial complaint.[v] DICCIPS has to inform the complainant in writing about the progress of the case no later than 30 days from the time the complaint has been filed.[vi]

External oversight

The legislative framework under the Law for Internal Affairs defines the actors within the external oversight framework: the Ombudsman and the Parliament of Macedonia.

If the Ombudsman’s office identifies irregularities or unlawfulness, they can start investigations on their own. The Law on Ombudsman has foreseen very broad competencies for this office. The ombudsman can request additional information or evidence from institutions, perform unannounced visits to offices of every state institution and can view all  their work regardless  of classification of information,  summon any official including police officers, and if needed, request expertise from other institutions.[vii] However in practice obstructions arise, such as blocking the Ombudsman in performing field visits or lack of essential information from the institutions that could help him prove facts.[viii] Importantly, the ombudsman deals with any government action, not only with police oversight. The office thus lacks the resources dedicated to this particular issue.

Parliamentary committees

Parliament as the second external mechanism performs general democratic oversight through its parliamentary committees, including the Committee on Security and Defense and the Standing Inquiry Committee for Protection of Civil Freedoms and Rights. However, the Committee on Security and Defense mainly discusses legislation while the Standing Committee on Human Rights meets once or twice per year (or prior to any change to the law of police or interior is conducted ) mainly to discuss draft laws.

Additionally, the Standing Inquiry Committee for Protection of Civil Freedoms and Rights discusses the European Commission’s Progress Report about Macedonia, with a focus on respect for human rights. However, last time this committee held a meeting was in 2012, and since then has not held any meeting.  This committee also can review complaints from citizens and concrete cases where citizens believe their rights to be infringed. An important feature of this parliamentary body is that its findings represent the basis for starting a procedure for accountability of public authorities.[ix] However, the work of this committee has not been very visible and by thus not very recognized by the citizens.

Endnotes

[i] CveteKoneska, Context Analysis of the Security Sector Reform in Macedonia, Analyticahttp://www.analyticamk.org/images/stories/files/cassrm_mk.pdf pg1.

[ii] Law on Internal Affairs of Republic of Macedonia, regulates the internal and external oversight mechanisms within the articles 57-64 of the Law:  http://www.mvr.gov.mk/Upload/Documents/ZVR%20nov%20precisten%2005.03.15.pdf

[iii] Law on Internal Affairs of Republic of Macedonia, article 58:  http://www.mvr.gov.mk/Upload/Documents/ZVR%20nov%20precisten%2005.03.15.pdf

[iv]Rules for carrying out activities of the Department for Internal Control, Criminal Investigations and Professional Standards, The ministry of interior, article3: http://www.mvr.gov.mk/Upload/Documents/pravilnik%201SVKPS%20konecna%20verzija.pdf

[v] Ibid, article 12

[vi]  Law on Internal Affairs of Republic of Macedonia, article 58:  http://www.mvr.gov.mk/Upload/Documents/ZVR%20nov%20precisten%2005.03.15.pdf

[vii] Law on Ombudsman of Republic of Macedonia, article 24: http://ombudsman.mk/upload/documents/Zakon%20na%20NP.PDF

[viii] Annual report 2014 –National preventive mechanism, pg 63: http://ombudsman.mk/upload/Godisni%20izvestai/GI-2014/GI%202014.pdf

[ix] A. Bogdanovski; M. Lembovksa – COMMUNICATIONS INTERCEPTION OVERSIGHT IN MACEDONIA “Making The Impossible Possible” – http://analyticamk.org/images/Files/impossible_en_final_9af93.pdf; pg. 30;  Analytica, Skopje 2015

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