Police Directorate: Failure to report roadblocks violates the law and endangers the safety of participants

Failure to report gatherings and blocking roads violates the Law on Public Gatherings and the Law on Road Traffic Safety and endangers the safety of demonstrators and other road users, which may cause unwanted consequences, the Police Directorate warned.

They addressed the public regarding, as they said, unregistered public gatherings by a group of citizens and the organization "Kamo Śutra", which were announced through the media to be organized daily in the form of road blockades, without prior notification to the Police Directorate in accordance with the Law.

The Police Directorate pointed out that the video footage taken on the eve of the last rally on February 1st testifies to a high level of risk to the safety of the rally participants themselves and other traffic participants, because some of the protesters, before the traffic closure on the Blaža Jovanović Bridge and before the start of the rally, tried to close traffic on their own initiative, which, they state, could have led to an incident or a serious crime against traffic safety.

"In this regard, we point out that traffic closures can only be carried out by the police with timely notification, and that this should never be done by citizens and organizers together.

"It is therefore of crucial importance, primarily for the safety of the protest participants themselves, that such gatherings are reported to the police in a timely manner, in accordance with the law, so that police officers can, in accordance with their authorities, redirect road traffic and thus, as before, ensure the smooth holding of such protests and the complete safety of their participants," the police statement said.

The police pointed out that any other behavior by the organizers and participants of these protests and the exclusion of the police as a partner, which would, through timely action, reduce the possibility of violating public order or endangering the safety of persons and road users, as they stated, would put the safety of citizens in question, and therefore raise the issue of the organizers' responsibility if any incidents and unwanted consequences occurred during such protests.