The reorganization of police structures at all levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be the first priority of the new policing policy.

By Denis Hadžović (CSS) / Photo: Reuters
@CSS_BiH

In the coming period, it will be necessary to direct priorities towards the systematic organization of police structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), to strengthen the capacity of the police and to improve transparency, accountability, and efficiency of their work. With clearly defined responsibilities and strengthened capacities, the police structures in BIH will be able to effectively respond, for example, to threats of terrorism; while the transparent, responsible and effective functioning of police structures will contribute to improving the security of citizens and strengthen their confidence in the work of the police structure.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a country in transition, is facing major challenges when it comes to the organization of police structures at all levels. The establishment of a large number of police agencies, each having operational autonomy has resulted in overlapping jurisdictions of police structures and the lack of coordination, especially in situations that require rapid and effective action by all police agencies in the country, such as in tackling terrorism. Also, it can be said that all of this undermines citizens’ trust in the police structure and it seems that they are concerned about their personal security.

Without Proper Counter-Terrorism Procedures

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris and later in Brussels, point to serious problems of decentralization of the police structure, as well as to the functioning of the police system in BIH. After the last terrorist attack, this time in Brussels, countries across Europe have raised the security measures and controls to a higher level, and it was realistic to expect that BIH will also act in the same way. However, it turned out that basic procedures that specify how police agencies should act after increased threats of terrorist attacks do not exist in BIH. The prevailing practice of BIH police bodies, that is, the ten cantonal, the two entity Ministries of Internal Affair and Brčko District of BIH Police, independently determine what are the measures to be taken following the increased threat of terrorist attacks.

The BIH State officials, during the meeting with the Task Force for Combating Terrorism and the directors of all police and intelligence agencies in the country, agreed with the fact that BIH has a fragmented approach to this global problem.

Denis Zvizdić, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH who attended the meeting of the Task Force for Combating Terrorism in BIH also “acknowledged that this situation once again raises the question of coordination of activities between police agencies in BIH”. He noted that there is a serious problem of organizational and normative coherence of police agencies and the intelligence agency in BIH and that it is necessary as soon as possible to harmonize normative acts with clearly established procedures for action in the event of the emergence of extremism or terrorism. This proposal, he said, “will not be included in the operational jurisdiction of security structures”.

In relation to this threat, many authors also emphasize that “BIH is no more vulnerable than other countries in Europe, but given a large number of followers of radical Islamists and ISIS, it needs to strengthen its capacity rather then leave it to chance”.

Police fragmentation affects trust in the police

All of the above makes an impression that the existing practice points to the fragmentation of the police structure in BIH, but also has a negative impact on public confidence in the police structure in the country.

In this regard, the 2013 Centre for Security Studies research on police shows that the last police reform in BIH did not significantly improve the safety of citizens, nor has it improved the efficiency and the capacity to combat terrorism. This means that the police reform has not addressed its initial objectives, and instead has only contributed to the increasing of the number of police agencies in the country.

When it comes to public confidence in police in BIH, the public opinion survey conducted by the POINTPULSE Network in 2015 showed very interesting results. According to the survey, every tenth citizen of BIH cited corruption as the first association to the police. Two-thirds of citizens (67%) believe that the role of the police as a public service is not a characteristic of BIH police. With the perception that the police is less in the service of citizens and more at the service of protecting the interests of politicians, the vast majority of citizens (91%) believes that, to some extent, there is an influence of politicians on police work.

In addition, every other resident of the country (47%) pointed out that the police is completely under the influence of politicians. In the opinion of the citizens, the most frequent corruptive acts in the police structures in BIH relate to the employment process. Citizens believe that employment in the police is conducted unlawfully, either through acquaintances (54%), through political connections (44%) or bribery (22%).

A similar opinion is shared by the citizens of BIH when it comes to the efficiency of the police in the country. Citizens’ perception is that the police sector is not efficient, especially when it comes to the prevention of corruption in general (26%) and within its own ranks (30%), the fight against economic crimes (26%) and organized crime (29%). According to citizens, the police is little effective in the areas of property protection and citizens (49%), as well as in the field of domestic violence (46%).

It is evident that the results of the aforementioned research show that citizens in BIH do not have confidence in the performance and the efficiency of the police and it is necessary that the police authorities in BIH improve transparency and accountability of their work and be more efficient in the service of citizens.

Bearing in mind the assessment by the highest BIH officials on the police and its functionality and citizens’ opinions on the effectiveness and trust in the work of police structures are not surprising, the reorganization of police structures at all levels in BIH must be the first priority of policing policy.