Even after the adoption of the Proposal for Amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs, it is not clear which powers almost a third of the new police personnel will be able to apply in the first months of their work, and which the Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to employ under an accelerated system, based on the decision of the commission that should be formed the minister Danilo Šaranović.
It has not been specified how long the recruitment procedure for 1.500 officers will take, nor the staff training, nor what additional integrity mechanisms the Ministry of Interior can offer in order to dismiss the numerous doubts that the changes in the Law on Internal Affairs will most likely lead to abuse of staff recruitment for party purposes.
Yesterday, in a new procedure, the Parliament adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs, which is the President of the State Jakov Milatovic returned on August 20 to the Assembly, stating that there is a high degree of risk of additional politicization of the police, since the MUP commission, i.e. the minister, have the de facto discretionary right to make decisions on employment of a large number of police officers.
The drafters of the regulations from the Ministry of Interior claim that the current way of hiring civil servants is sluggish and slow...
The interlocutors of "Vijesti", however, indicated that the new legal solutions are dangerous for the public service system, and that hiring police personnel in a hurry, without professional knowledge and skills, will very likely lead to a decline in the quality of citizen security protection.
Former Assistant Minister of the Interior, lawyer and full professor Miloš Vukčević he told "Vijesti" that he believes that with the new legal solution we will get a service that "reminds us more of the one from the 90s when the police was the largest employer in the country".
"After 30 years of alleged reforms, we are returning to the old system of employment in the police - without public advertising and without attending training, which the candidate will undergo a year after establishing an employment relationship. "This type of employment system will damage the police system and the organization of the police as a state administration body within the public administration system," claims Vukčević.
During the preparation of legal amendments, the MUP did not consult the public, did not invite representatives of non-governmental organizations to join the working group, nor did it conduct a public discussion and ask for opinions on the proposed solutions.
For years, there has been clear information, especially after the liberalization and improvement of the conditions for the retirement of police personnel, that the Police Administration will remain without police, but there are still many unknowns, which is why the MUP has not adopted the Personnel Plan for years, including the question of whether the systematization of jobs during 2022 , when the number of employees increased by more than 1.000 jobs, a realistic picture of the needs of the UP system.
Civic activist Dina Bajramspahić she warned that the new amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs will further derogate the police system and forget any hope of professionalizing the police.
"Full liberalization of employment in the UP is planned, and they called it a 'special recruitment procedure': without a personnel plan, without public advertising, bypassing the Human Resources Administration, bypassing mandatory training, the procedure is carried out by a commission established by the minister, which further politicizes the entire procedure, and they also prescribed 'extraordinary promotion' so that new politically eligible police officers without prior mandatory training could jump over ranks and climb the police hierarchy faster," she stated.
Bajramspahić pointed out that the MUP justifies this decision by the high number of unfilled jobs, but that they do not want to say that in 2022 an incredible 1.001 new jobs were added to the UP through systematization.
"If employment is carried out as it was intended, it will have consequences for a number of future decades, because the police will be filled with people who do not know how to apply police powers, do not understand human rights or criminal procedure, not to mention the sensitivity to the treatment of special categories", she states.
And lawyer Vukčević states that it is more than obvious that "the only goal of the proposed changes is to take over the political staffing of the police and turn it into another political fiefdom."
"Abolishing the system of public announcements and transferring the decision on the selection of candidates to the hands of the commission, which will be formed by the minister and which answers to the minister, will inevitably lead to party recruitment in UP, which should be neutral from politics. In this way, the Police Directorate will become another prey of political parties and their divisions. The selection committee formed by the minister cannot be neutral because it is made up of people who are exclusively chosen by the minister without the possibility of the participation of persons from other authorities and ministries," explained Vukčević.
He also claims that the recruitment procedure for the admission of new staff in the UP will not speed up anything, as the law's proponents claim, "except that the power of election will be concentrated in the hands of the minister".
Equalization of students and academics
Whether the future police personnel, who will undergo training as a police officer through an accelerated course, will affect the work of the Police Academy is a question that has been raised since the MUP proposed new legal solutions on August 1.
The question is who in the future will have the desire to enroll in the Police Academy and thus be educated as an UP officer.
"The police academy was supposed to be the heart of the future development and education of police officers. According to earlier strategic documents, it was supposed to grow into a faculty, which will organizationally belong to the MUP, and at the same time be part of the education system. Changes to the Home Affairs Act will further degrade its position and role as it will equate academics with those who complete a police course. They are wrong in the MUP if they think that they will solve the lack of police staff with courses," says lawyer Miloš Vukčević.
For him, it is questionable that a large number of new personnel will establish a relationship before going to police training.
"If they establish an employment relationship, they already become police officers who, according to the Law, receive police powers, including the use of coercive means. Being a police officer is a serious profession. That is why significant attention should be paid to the education of police officers, and a short police course is not the solution," he says.
Will there be a lack of police again in three years?
The legal decision foresees the extension of the deadline for retiring under preferential conditions until 2028, which means that a large number of current personnel will take advantage of the opportunity to pay off the police uniform in the next three years.
This will mean that in the next three years, the Police Directorate will very likely face a huge number of retirements, which will again lead to a shortage of UP officers.
In addition, the staff, who will agree with the faculty to work at UP, will have the right to seek promotion in the system based on their diploma in three years, so it is expected that they will continue to work as elders in the police.
Insiders state that this will also affect the situation and that in three years UP will again face a shortage of police personnel.
In addition, there is also a big question as to whether a drastic increase in the number of police officers, beyond the regular procedure, will establish an adequate system of integrity of the Police in the near future.
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