Police and (dis)trust

While bad economic situation is the first common concern of all the citizens in the Western Balkans region, corruption comes in a close second.

By Bojan Elek (BCSP)

Although citizens frequently identify corruption as one of the leading problems facing the societies in the region, the number of citizens who state that corruption is the single most important issue is still lower than the number of those who state the unemployment is of gravest concern. This situation is a direct indicator that the citizens are primarily focused on personal, economic problems. One in 20 citizens in Serbia perceives corruption as the most important problem in the society, compared to one in ten in both Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one in seven in Kosovo. Citizens are particularly concerned about the corruption in police, the institution that is supposed to lead the fight against corruption.

Citizens of Montenegro have the highest level of trust in institutions, whereas their Kosovo counterparts have the lowest one. The citizens of Serbia have the least trust in police (52%), followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina (54%), Kosovo (56%) and Montenegro, where the police earned the highest level of trust among the citizens (58%). In the eyes of the citizens of the Western Balkans, an average police officer has the image of being rude, corrupt and uneducated.

Most of the citizens in all four societies think that the corruption is most widely spread in the traffic police, with the most corrupt individuals being those in high positions. More than three quarters of the citizens perceive the police as a force apparatus devoid of supervision and control, as working for the interests of political parties, the Government and top ranking police officials; only one quarter believes the police operate as a service of the citizens. While one third of the citizens think it is possible to get a job in the police through applying to the open calls for vacant positions, most of them believes these positions are being filled through friend- and kin-related connections, as well as the political ones.

This is why it does not come as a surprise that most of the citizens, and this is especially true for Bosnia and Herzegovina, think that there is no political will in the region to tackle the issue of corruption in a serious and determined manner. Those who do not doubt that the political will for fighting corruption exists are the most numerous in Serbia and least numerous in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where only one in eight citizens recognizes the existence of the political will. Apart from the political will that is perceived as only one of the problems, citizens in all four communities also believe that underdeveloped institutional capacities for fighting corruption are also an issue, in Bosnia and Herzegovina to a greatest extent (53%), somewhat less in in Serbia and Montenegro (43% in both) and finally Kosovo (35%).

The effectiveness of police work received the worst grades in the areas connected to money and power, namely in fighting economic crime, general corruption, corruption in police and organized crime. When it comes to the aspects of police work that were evaluated positively by the citizens, these were predominantly segments that include direct contact with the police officers, i.e. public law and order and safety of the citizens.

At first sight, it appears that Kosovo stands out from the rest of the region as a positive example of good police work. When compared to other societies, the citizens of Kosovo on average rate their police officers as more professional, cultured and citizen-oriented to a greater extent. However, this positive perception diverges greatly from the experience the citizens had in contacts with Kosovo police. The gap between the positive perceptions and negative experiences in direct contacts with police officers can best be explained with the process of institution building. When institutions are in the process of being established and built from scratch, there is a tendency for the citizens to evaluate their performance in a more positive manner, which can often be at odds with the situation in the field. The citizens of Kosovo tend to bribe their police officers most frequently, twice as often as their counterparts in Serbia and even three times as frequent as those in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Additionally, bribing a police officer in Kosovo also costs most money, since the amount that is given for bribery most frequently is 20 EUR, compared to 2,000 RSD (approximately 18 EUR) in Serbia, and 10 EUR in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kosovo also stands out due to the fact that local police officer more frequently initiate the bribery by asking for money, whereas in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro the bribery is predominantly initiated by the citizens.

The citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina can best be described as apathetic when it comes to fighting corruption, if taken into account that almost two thirds of them either think that no one is addressing the issue or does not know who is in charge of dealing with it. The police in Montenegro are criticized on the accounts of low effectiveness in fighting organized crime and corruption, whereas the Serbian police are seen as being most corrupt by the citizens. Even though two thirds of Serbian citizens are aware of this problem, only one third would report the corruption in police if that requires from them to disclose their personal data in the process of reporting.

After considering the results presented above, it comes as no surprise that the trust in police among the citizens in the Western Balkans is below global average, according to which 60-90% of citizens have trust in police. Low level of trust in police leads to reduction in the number of reported cases, increase in criminal activity and, consequently, to the reduced citizen safety. The study shows that it is necessary to invest further efforts in police reform so as to facilitate its transformation into the service of the citizens. The key areas that the reform needs to include are depoliticization, professionalization and fight against corruption within police.

Photo by Aleksandar Ćirić.
The article was originally published by daily newspaper Danas.