Good morning! The Montenegrin police is in a serious crisis. It’s missing policemen. More are being retired than produced. How did we get from “the most police officers per capita” to where we are now?
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What is happening with Montenegrin police?
Do you remember the story about how Montenegro has the most police officers per capita? The story that this is proof that “Djukanovic was building a police state?” And how is it that now suddenly there are no policemen. Has there really been a drastic change in the number of police personnel after 2020 or is it something else?
The number of police officers is a topic that has been discussed in Montenegro since the 1990s. Montenegro in the state union with Serbia did not have control over the army, so it neglected the security challenges by qualitatively and quantitatively strengthening the police.
However, after the restoration of independence, the number of police officers decreased. And an even bigger reduction was planned. In 2011, the DPS government made an analysis and gave itself recommendations that the number of police officers had to be reduced to the European average of 300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants.
There were regular headlines in the critical media: “Montenegro the first baton of Europe”, “Police state” – until 2023 and the arrival of URA and Minister Adzic at the head of the police, who said “we lack 1,600 policemen”.
A few days ago, the text of Radio Free Europe stated that we have 5,400 jobs according to the systematization of the Police Directorate, and that there are 3,900 employees. That more police officers are retiring due to favorable retirement conditions, and that the police academy cannot accommodate new staff with that pace.
If we take the number of 3,900 policemen per 600,000 inhabitants, we again have twice as many policemen as what was established a long time ago as the European average. So, what’s the problem? Who is deceiving us? Is someone deliberately collapsing the security sector?
Among the retired staff, there is a strong opinion that the URA decimated the police and filled it with its own staff. We also witnessed the problematic political behavior of police academy cadets who cheered against the Montenegrin national team a few years ago.
The problem is greatest on the coast, where the number of inhabitants changes and fluctuates, where crime is more diversified. This is where the police officers are missing the most. You will often see one policeman on patrol in Budva. That is enough of a sign that something is not right.
If the number is still not small, isn’t the problem perhaps the recruitment of non-uniformed staff and the predominance of office and administrative workers in the Police Directorate to the detriment of uniformed staff? All these are questions that opened up after 2019, when it is no longer one-party belly that needs to be filled, but now there are about ten of them in the coalition, and they are all equally hungry.
Good employment and clientelism will cost Montenegro dearly. A great deal of energy of any government comes down to dismissals and appointments. We wait every Thursday for the cabinet meeting to see who was appointed and who was removed from office. And no one seems to think about the essential things without which the state cannot function.
We are just waiting for someone to think of a genius idea and import the police from Serbia. That is the solution. We already import journalists, we import consultants and advisers in the government. We only need police officers. Vulin’s ones. They already have the station. At the very seafront in Budva. It’s Hotel Belgrade. The base of Belgrade’s Ministry of the Interior.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(The opinions and views of the authors of the columns are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
