CIAO DATE: 03/04

Democratic Control of the Police and Police Reform in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia

Abstract

DCAF's approach to police reform emphasises democratic control of policing as a priority before improving police efficiency and modernisation. This report builds on the analyses and recommendations offered by the Monk and Slater reports for police reform in FRY and Serbia, concentrating on those measures that may help restore professional integrity, democratic values and public confidence in the policing institution, such as accountability mechanisms, anti-corruption measures, and public consultation procedures. Only by embedding such mechanisms within police reform from the earliest stages will democratic policing develop in Serbia and Yugoslavia.

The recommendations that DCAF advances at the end of this report are a series of pragmatic initiatives to begin building democratic control, accountability, and public trust in the police. They seek to begin the operationalisation of democratic control in concrete and practical ways. These include the establishment of an advisory round-table to advise the government on democratic control issues concerning the police, consultation with civil society groups in support of community policing, the adoption of the Council of Europe draft code of police ethics, a program designed to cleanse the police organisation of those with human rights abuses or criminal connections, a road safety traffic program to build public confidence in a non-controversial area, a crack-down on petty corruption through the establishment of a public police bribes hotline, and a program to increase recruitment of female police officers.

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