In the fight against crime and corruption, the Montenegrin police have recently been more and more often offering monetary rewards to those who help solve serious crimes. However, these measures obviously do not produce results.
Why are monetary rewards in Montenegro not a sufficient motive for persons who have any information about criminal acts to pass it on to the competent state authorities?
Radio Free Europe first asked that question to Branislav Lutovac, a distinguished Montenegrin lawyer with many years of practice, who had a laconic answer.
"The risk of revealing such information is obviously greater than the monetary benefit that, by revealing the information, brings that person a monetary reward. Montenegro is a small country, where it is impossible to hide and protect yourself from the criminal milieu," Lutovac commented.
In the last few years, at least twice, the Government and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have offered money for information that would lead to the commission of the most serious crimes.
Thus, after 10 years, a reward of as much as one million euros was announced for information on the murder of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Dan Duško Jovanović, which was committed in 2004, and 30.000 euros for the recent attempt to kill the former head of the Police Department for the fight against organized crime and corruption, Predrag Šuković.
In addition to the reward, the police in some cases published a photo robot of the killer, so that citizens could more easily recognize the possible perpetrator or perpetrators of some of the 40 unsolved murders in Montenegro.
Patterns in the police
Zoran Miljanić, an opposition MP with many years of experience working in the police and a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Security, believes that the causes of the ineffectiveness of monetary rewards for information on serious crimes should be sought in the police itself.
"Is it about the incompetence of the police, is it about ignorance, or is it about, in my deep judgment, the deep involvement of certain police structures in the structures of organized crime, from where the structures of organized crime obviously draw knowledge, draw data about what the police are preparing, how far they have reached in certain investigations, so that the announcement of a reward is used as a last resort", assesses Miljanić.
Journalist and editor of the newspaper DAN Nikola Marković reminds that the announcement of monetary rewards for those who help solve a criminal offense is a practice all over the world, and whether it will have an effect depends on several factors. One of the key factors is distrust in system institutions and state bodies.
"In order to protect and preserve their identity after providing them with such information, because, let me remind you, we are talking about rewards for the most serious crimes, where potential providers of information can get into trouble with the perpetrators and principals. Because, obviously, it is about organized criminal groups," says Marković.
No less important reason, according to Marković, lies in the fact that Montenegro is still a patriarchal and traditional society.
"Where in common law it is considered dishonorable to provide information about a criminal offense to the competent institutions and above all to the police. You know that I do not use harsh terms, as in our nation such persons are called in jargon and are stigmatized as doing something bad," he adds. Markovic.
The impression of part of the public that by announcing a monetary reward the police is trying to make up for inefficiency in solving numerous criminal cases is not entirely shared by Zoran Miljanić, who believes that it is only a last resort resorted to by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, unfortunately with a delay.
"The announcement of the reward must be accurate, it must be timely and the amount must be at the level that the importance of solving the murder is adequate to the amount that is being announced. And especially since it is probably about the great fear of the perpetrators themselves and people who know something. Because, the involvement of both security structures and political structures is obvious," states Miljanić.
Lawyer Branislav Lutovac is not optimistic that anything will change in the future, so the monetary rewards become enough of a stimulus for those who know something to talk about it.
"This latent fear that exists among all citizens of Montenegro regarding the detection of perpetrators of criminal offenses will continue to exist," Lutovac opined.
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