The citizens and media in Kosovo perceive the Kosovo Police as a sufficiently transparent institution, but it’s important to provide more statistics on various policing issues.

By Plator Avdiu (KCSS) / Photo: Synchrogenix
@PlatorAvdiu

Recommendations

1. The Information and Public Relations Office (IPRO) of the police should be more open to the public. Precisely, the IPRO should provide more detailed information to the public, the media, and to non-governmental organizations upon their requests.
2. As it is generally know that they provide general and superficial information, the Kosovo Police (KP) and its IPRO need to also provide more statistics on various issues to the relevant parties.
3. There should be less bureaucracy in terms of providing information concerning the activities of the police quickly and on a timely basis.

Transparency of policing is well regulated

Transparency of the police is one of the guiding principles of the KP, foreseen in the Law on Police in order to provide information to the public and ensure that the institution of the police is open to the public. This legal definition is rather general; however it is strengthened further through the strategic documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). They state that the police operational issues and the activities of the police that are of public interest are covered by the IPRO of the KP, which aims to provide full and timely information to the public through the media.

According to the documents that serve to define the public relations of the police, the media has access to the police information upon request or proactively, which implies information, press releases, various campaigns, communication through the Internet and the social networks, as well as press conferences. However, there are restrictions when it comes to police information concerning national security, public order and the reputation of others, which may not be available to the public. The police however have not specified what constitutes sensitive information not to be made accessible to the public.

Unveil more information about the police performance

The public can obtain information from the police regarding its work and decisions if such information does not threaten the public interest. Public communication of the KP is conducted through the IPRO of the KP at the central and regional levels of the police. The primary role of the IPRO is to organize, manage and coordinate all the activities related to cooperation between the police and the media. It prepares reports on a daily basis – 24 hour reports – about the overall activities of the police, press conferences, information provided upon request to the media or other stakeholders, on various information campaigns, etc.

In addition, every year the police regularly publish their annual report, which comprises the most important activities and statistics for the previous twelve months. This report contains general information on the annual activities of the police and mainly summarizes the information already published by the police during the previous 12 month period. It should cover the internal functioning of the police and the performance assessment conducted by the police much more comprehensively.

An important part when it comes to transparency of the police is the publication of press releases on the website of the police, so that representatives of the media, citizens and other parties can be informed about the activities of the KP.

Police officers have not passed security clearance

Another step towards transparency of the KP is the security clearance conducted by the KIA of police officers and other officials of state institutions who have access to classified information. A large number of officials in the KP have has failed to pass the vetting procedure of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA). Furthermore, the police did not implement the decisions of the KIA related to the vetting process. Consequently, senior officials of the police are still working in positions that they held prior to KIA’s vetting decisions, although they had failed the vetting process based on the Law on Classification of Information and Security Clearance. All police officers who had failed the vetting process have filed appeals and are now awaiting court decisions. However, the KIA’s vetting procedure concerning the police and non-implementation of the latter’s decisions shows that there is a lack of coordination and cooperation between these institutions.