Over 1.300 candidates applied for the call for new police officers, some have already dropped out

Over 5 candidates applied for the public call for new police officers, which was announced in mid-January and closed on February 1.300th.

It is up to the commissions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) to verify whether they all meet the necessary conditions.

So far, between 200 and 300 candidates have been rejected due to inadequate qualifications.

The public call for new police officers, announced in mid-January, ended more than 20 days ago.

1.385 candidates applied, while the goal was to hire 815 new police officers.

However, as the acting director of the Police Administration, Lazar Šćepanović, points out, a certain number of applicants have already dropped out, and the selection is still being carried out.

"I think that already in this first selection process, 200-300 candidates were eliminated because they did not have adequate qualifications," said Šćepanović in an interview with Television Vijesti.

Candidates had to have at least the fifth level of education, i.e. completed college or adequate vocational training, while for those with the sixth or seventh level of education it did not matter which faculties they graduated from.

Although Montenegro was once recognized as a leader in Europe in terms of the number of police officers, in mid-January the government was forced to make an urgent decision on hiring police officers, without public advertising or a staffing plan.

However, the Ministry of Interior announced at the time that only candidates with unquestionable personal and professional integrity could enter the service.

"After defining the list, checks for security concerns and psychophysical abilities will be carried out at the same time. You know that they have four commissions that will be formed and will deal with the entire selection process until the exact list of candidates who will be accepted into the Police Directorate is determined," said Šćepanović.

On several occasions, the professional community has emphasized that it is crucial to establish clear criteria in order to ensure the quality of the personnel being employed.

The Vijesti portal recently announced that the Police Directorate has significantly increased the presence of police officers in Cetinje after the mass crime that occurred in the Royal Capital earlier this year.

According to unofficial data from "Vijesti", every day at least 28 officers, including members of special police units, are sent in shifts to assist Cetinje.