When crime announces police monitoring

2023-01-14 17:41:31Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA LUTFI DERVISHI
The police of Shkodra discovered an unprecedented case of the activity of criminal groups operating in this city. 21 cameras were placed by the gangs on electric poles in different streets, to collect information for criminal purposes. The purpose of the cameras was to monitor the movements of the police structures, according to the Shkodra Police.

"If you want to appreciate a civilization, first see the cemetery. If you want to evaluate a country, then start by looking at the police. If you want to evaluate a society, look at the traffic and pedestrian traffic".

This lapidary statement of Charles de Gaulle sounds ironic with today's news that in Shkodër, cameras were placed on the pillars of the main roads to monitor the police.

"Such events happen everywhere, even movies are made", someone would say, but even if you see such a scene in the movie, you say: The screenwriter has exaggerated a bit too much...

There are 110 years between the first director of the Albanian state police and the current director.

110 years ago, the director general of the police was Halim Gostivari from Gjakova, with legal education in Istanbul and master of four foreign languages.

In 110 years of statehood, Albania has recognized 44 police directors. In the years between the two world wars, the country recognized 16 general directors, who stayed in office for an average of 1 year and nine months. From 1944 to 1992, we had 10 directors-general, who served (on average) 4 years and eight months. (Of these 10 directors, 4 were from Vlora, 2 from Korça, 1 from Gjirokastra, 1 from Delvina, 1 from Elbasan and 1 from Gramshi.

From 1992 until today we have had 18 general directors. One year and seven months is the average tenure. The democracy/transition period also marks the shortest average duration in this post.

Only during the last 10 years we have had one party in power, but 4 interior ministers and 6 general directors. We could only have one general director these 10 years, but the penultimate one was fired by the government after 9 months in office. Any comparison is lame, but what for example, the police director in Italy has been in office since 2016.

In a conversation about today's police problems, a respected colleague said that "only separation from politics saves the police". Theoretically, this is how it is: the police are separated from politics. Practically, it was the policy that dismissed or forced the resignation of 5 general directors in a decade who were greeted with ceremony and left with a handcuff.

It is not easy to tell whether the police have allowed themselves to be used by politics, or whether they have offered themselves for political use.

It is critical that the police have integrity and professionalism. But events like the involvement in the cannabisization of the country, 2015-2017, the start of vetting with fanfare and leaving it in silence not yet started, the initiatives abandoned from the beginning to take fingerprints and anti-drug tests, the failure with the cameras et(r) )upit, the attempt to hide and manipulate the evidence in events where it is itself involved, have shaken the public's trust in the police.

A good selection, a guaranteed career, a decent salary and the political will to fight crime and not involve it in politics would be enough to change the situation...

110 years ago there was no talk of Euro-Atlantic integration, because the very existence of the state was in question. Halim Gostivari, the first police director was 35 years old and spoke four foreign languages.

Today, as early as 2023, it is not appropriate to have only the names of police operations in English.

The police have an obligation to separate themselves from politics and crime. It has an obligation in the first place for the sake of the martyrs of the police, their children, its veterans who have not even spared their lives in their work.

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