Police on the verge of completely exiting the state of emergency

The race for four positions of assistant director of the Police Directorate (PD) has entered its final phase as the Human Resources Directorate has submitted the final list of ranked candidates to the Director of Public Service Lazar Šćepanović, "Vijesti" has learned.

In order for the Police Administration to finally emerge from the long-standing acting state in all police sectors, there is only one more step left, namely for the Director of the Police Administration to interview candidates and make a proposal as to who will be his first associates.

The decision on the selection of the Deputy Director of the Police Department for all lines of work is expected in the next few days, and this will mean another important stroke on the EU agenda, as the European Commission has been asking the Ministry of the Interior since the New Year to complete the elections for management positions in the service in order to meet the final benchmarks from the negotiating Chapter 24.

The Human Resources Department did not respond to "Vijesti's" questions or provide a final ranking list, and they did not send data on how each candidate was scored during the testing for all four assistant positions.

The most interesting decision will be in the General Police Sector, where three candidates applied for the competition, and after Commander Ratko Furtula did not appear for the test at the Human Resources Administration, the long-time acting assistant Dragan Gorović and the head of the Regional Security Center "West" Haris Đurđević remained in the race.

Police officer Dragan Gorović will also be remembered as a kind of record holder in state administration, whose acting mandate as Assistant Director of the General Jurisdiction Police Sector has been extended 12 times since the summer of 2021.

The Chief of RCB "Sjever" Haris Đurđević was appointed to this position in the police apparatus in mid-April 2024, and before that, he had been managing the Pljevlja Security Center since 2021.

His arrival as mayor of Pljevlja was accompanied by a protest from citizens, who objected to the appointment, but the then director of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Zoran Brđanin, defended Đurđević and said that "he will not change his decision just because of pressure from a group of citizens, but only if there is evidence."

New citizen protests, demanding accountability and the removal of Haris Đurđević, occurred at the end of 2024, after a long search for a double murderer from the village of Sokolac near Tomaševo - Alija Balijagić.

The family of the murdered Jovan and Milenka Madžgalj, as well as the residents of Vraneška dolina, have protested and blocked the highway on several occasions, demanding the resignation of police chiefs, including the chief of RC "Sjever". The family also filed a criminal complaint, naming Đurđević as the most responsible in the chain, but criminal proceedings were initiated against two police officers from the Bijelo Polje Police Station, while the prosecution dismissed the charges against Đurđević and four other officers.

The Internal Control of the Police Department did not find that Haris Đurđević made an omission in the Balijagić case, but they initiated disciplinary proceedings against 10 employees of RCB "Sjever". The media also wrote that Đurđević declared two apartments and cash in his asset file, but that he allegedly kept quiet about the fact that he also had a house in Žabljak, in the village of Pitomine, which was built in 2020. The media also published a document on which his official number was left as the contact of the applicant for the legalization of the 58 m2 house, which was registered to Ziza Đurđević.

After the media dealt with this property, "Vijesti" found, after reviewing a public document, that the official phone number, which is still used by the mayor from the north, had been deleted in the meantime.

It seems that the UP director will have a somewhat easier decision when selecting assistants in other UP sectors, because only one candidate applied for the competition.

The current acting head of the Crime Prevention Sector, Velimir Mićo Furtula, applied for the vacancy, the current acting head of the Border Police Sector, Dejan Bojić, is the candidate, while it seems that there will be no changes in the Security Sector for Persons and Facilities, as only acting head Miloš Peković applied for that position.

Assistant directors are officially appointed by the Minister of Internal Affairs Danilo Šaranović at the proposal of the Director of the Police Administration, and with the prior consent of the Government, for a term of five years.