Based on the statistics on the work of the police force in BiH, it can be said that the police agencies fulfill their tasks and that the level of security is satisfactory, even though research demonstrates that the subjective feelings of citizens does not conform to the statistical data, said the ‘’Kruga 99” Director of the FBiH Police Academy Talib Spahić.
Speaking about the theme “Has police reform accomplished its goal: security of citizens”, Spahić said that the signing of the Dayton Agreement has until now in BiH worked on reforming police activities and police structures.
‘’It can be said that the reform strategy policing has been successfully implemented, while reform of the police structure is still in the first phase’’, said Spahić.
He added that the reform of the police had political, operative, and security goals. The political objectives have been met, as evidenced by the fact that BiH signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which resulted in a visa-free regime.
‘’The operative goal has been met with the adoption of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies and of the Independent Regulatory Agencies of Police Structures at the state level’’, said Spahić.
He said that a security objective of the reform would be achieved only after the implementation of constitutional reform for depoliticization of the police, making a framework law for the police and budget, and the formulation of local police zones based on functional and technical principles. This should result in the creation of a single police structure.
‘’To achieve a higher level of security we need an overview of the capacity of the coordination of police structures and whether they are sufficient, and complete the process of police reform‘’, said Spahić.
Comparing statistics on the degree of resolved crimes in BiH with those in Western Europe, Spahić said that BiH is in a better position. This shows that the number of police officers in BiH has to be reduced, and has to increase in Western Europe.
He stressed that one of the main goals of police reform would be improvement of cooperation with citizens, and for this purpose a number of international projects are being implemented.
