Balkan Citizens Still Trust 'Corrupt' Police, Survey Shows

A new survey published on Thursday by a regional network of NGOs, Pointpulse and the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, shows that well over half of all surveyed citizens in the Western Balkans - 58 per cent - trust their police forces despite viewing them as corrupt.

"Although more than half of citizens have trust in the police, most of them perceive them as corrupt - 58 per cent," the survey says.

The survey was conducted in Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo during June and July among 6,000 adults.

The authors say the popular belief that the police are both corrupt and trustworthy at the same time suggests people have accepted that corruption is widely present in the police, and have become accustomed to it as an inevitable.

"Border, traffic and criminal police, as well as the close associates of interior ministers, are singled out as the most corrupt sections of the police, while special units, employees in administrative affairs and employees in matters of public order protection are the least vulnerable to corruption," the survey says.

Citizens of Kosovo have most trust in their police force - 69 per cent. This is followed by Montenegro, where 65 per cent trust the police, and by Albania, where the level of trust is 60 per cent. In Serbia, the figure is 56 per cent and in Macedonia, 54 per cent. Bosnians have least trust in their police  - only 47 per cent.  

The Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust, Pointpulse, is a regional network of NGOs from Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo, in which BIRN Serbia also participates. It was formed in 2014 to look at the police's integrity in the Western Balkans.

The latest survey showed that 65 per cent of the...