23/07/2015
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) on Wednesday, 22nd of July 2015, have organized the conference entitled: “The Perceptions of Citizens on Corruption in the Kosovo Police”. During the conference were presented results from the public opinion survey “Police Integrity in Western Balkans”. On the same day were organized three other conferences by the regional partners of Pointpulse project in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Podgorica. This survey was conducted during June – July 2015 with 1221 citizens in all the territory of Kosovo.
KCSS’s researchers, Skender Perteshi and Plator Avdiu have presented data on perceptions of citizens towards Kosovo Police, and comparative public perceptions on police corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.
According to the survey, Kosovo Police is ranked as the most trusted institution with 56%, followed by Education System with 55%, media 41% and non-governmental institutions with 38%. Less credible institutions appeared to be: Prosecution with 24% and Judiciary System with 27%. Citizens have also been asked about their perceptions of an ordinary police officer, where 29% of respondents evaluated the police officers as polite and cultured, while 24% of them evaluated as enforcers and defenders of law, followed by 18% of citizens who believes that police officers are corrupted and non-professional. Whereas, on the question if they consider that the political level has an impact in operational tasks of Kosovo Police, 36% of respondents think that the political level have big impact, followed by 40% of respondents who believe that the political level is present to some extent in the operational work of police, and 15% of respondents considered that the political influence have less impact in the operational work of Kosovo Police.
As the most corrupted institutions, respondents ranked the Inspectorates of Labor and Market with 61%, followed by Judiciary System with 62%, Municipal Level with 28% and Customs with 57%, while less corrupted institutions are non-governmental organizations with 42%, media with 47% and Kosovo Police with 53%. The most common forms of corruption in which Kosovo
Police is included, respondents evaluated bribery in 45% of cases, followed by issuing of documents through family ties with 13%, selling confidential information from police officers with 7%, and robbery during police investigation with 4%. 46% of bribery was done after the police officers had requested it from citizens, while 47% of citizens appeared to be the first who offered bribes to police officers.
The role of European Union was ranked as very important in the fight against corruption. When respondents where asked in what way can EU help the fight against corruption in Kosovo, 28% of them believes that EU should put pressure on Government against the corruption and the financial support of EU should be conditioned with concrete results in fight against corruption.
