Croatia increases transparency of police work

Croatia increases transparency of police work

An amendment is seen as an effort to increase public trust in the police.

Police investigations will be monitored by a civil council under the new law. [AFP]

Croatia is planning to institute a council of civil representatives to monitor criminal investigations in order to improve police transparency.

The civil control falls under an amendment to the law on police activities, which the government adopted on February 7th. According to the amendment, the council will be comprised of civil representatives who will have the power to conduct surveillance after criminal investigations by police.

"In the past, there have been some cases that have caused public doubt in the exactness of the operations of the police, especially when it came to wiretapping. This law will find a balance between crime prevention and democratic methods of surveillance," Dusan Miljus, a spokesman for the internal affairs ministry, told SETimes.

Previously, only the secret service was under citizen oversight.

With the separation of the secret service and the police department after Croatia's independence in 1992, the police received a number of powers in order to combat all forms of crime. Among these were the ability to use wiretaps with a warrant from the court, and to obtain a list of telecommunication traffic and locate any cell phone without a court order.

Djuro Lubura, a permanent court expert in telecommunications, technology and methodology of wiretapping based in Zagreb, said that police obtain lists of telecommunication traffic and locations from more than 50,000 cell phones per year.

"This law is certainly a step forward because the state is introducing civilian...