Police authorities have statistics on police involvement in corruption, but it is questionable how relevant this data is.
Considering that all spheres of the government are affected by corruption, it is not surprising that the police are no exception. Moreover, the police are in contact more frequently with the public, a lot more than other segments of government. However, do the police know how many of their employees are involved in corrupt acts, how many have been prosecuted for it in front of the courts and how many of them have been convicted?
The Center for Security Studies (CSS) has conducted a study: “Mapping the quality of statistics on corruption in the police force in Bosnia and Herzegovina” with the aim of determining whether the police have records on the involvement of its officials in corruption and how much they reflect a true and clear picture. The study did not address numbers but only quality evidence and the way the police access to the data. This is the first study based on the records of police corruption in B&H. The majority of previous research stated that the high level of police involvement in corruption in B&H is based on the experiences and perception of citizens’ or experience and perspective of a damaged party. None of these studies addressed the real and relevant statistical data and quality of official records on the presence of corruption in the police.
All police agencies in B&H have a real need to systematically possess maintained records of their employees’ involvement in corruption. However, this data is not consolidated but are located in several different records or only as data of individual cases. Records in which the presence of corruption in police records can be somewhat seen are the following: citizen complaints, internal investigations, disciplinary procedures and analytical forms. Although the form, the way and content of these records varies from one police agency to the other, they all still provide a somewhat good basis for an insight into the level of corruption in the police.
In terms of relevance, the recommended practice is to have information and data on the number of final court judgments for these offences and sentences imposed involving employees of the police. Although the police have this information at their disposition, they are in individual cases and, unfortunately, not added to the special records. Therefore, when it comes to offenses of corruption committed by police officers, information can be obtained on citizens’ complaints, the number of internal investigations and disciplinary procedures on corruptive acts, as well as the number of knowledgeable criminal charges, but not the number of submitted indictments and sentences.
(Source: siguran.ba/ photo faktor)
