The Police Inspectorate of Kosovo (PIK) has been established in 2006. The Law on Police Inspectorate of Kosovo adopted in 2008, and amended in 2010, authorises the Police Inspectorate of Kosovo, as an independent institution, to investigate complaints about police misconduct. Three EULEX advisors are working in strengthening this relatively new institution.

To raise awareness about the work of PIK, a meeting was organized with fifteen NGO members of Kosovo Policy Action Network (KPAN) from Gračanica/Graçanicë, Kamenica and northern Mitrovica.

Dražen Trboljevac, an investigator at PIK, introduced his organisation and the procedures in place for filing complaints against police officers. He explained that PIK, as an independent institution, follows up on such complaints in order to ensure that “police officers at fault will bear consequences of their behaviour”. He encouraged everyone to inform PIK about any case of police misconduct. “As long as there are no complaints, individual police offers are able to continue their misuse of power. PIK is working for the citizens to stop this”, said Trboljevac.

Antonio Melo, one of the EULEX advisors working with PIK emphasized the lessons learned worldwide in the fight against police misconduct. “Attempts all over the world to combat police misconduct have revealed similar and recurrent problems: police ethos, organisations and procedures which inhibit police improper behaviour and lack of public confidence in the police force`s ability to investigate complaints against its members”, Melo said.

Civil society representatives noted that the general public is not sufficiently informed about the Inspectorate and they welcomed efforts to raise more awareness. “In order to protect our rights we have to use the mechanisms that are offered through this body,”, said Nenad Maksimovic, one of the representatives of civil society.

Complaints against police officers can be submitted to PIK, using an online complaint form which can be found at the following address on the Inspectorate’s website: http://ipk.rks-gov.net/ComplainEng.aspx , or by writing an email to info.ipk@rks-gov.net . The website also provides other contacts of PIK, such as phone numbers and the address of the Inspectorate. More importantly, the complaints can also be filed anonymously.

This visit is part of a broader campaign to raise awareness about the work of Kosovo’s Rule of Law institutions that EULEX supports. For more information about this campaign, see our Facebook and TV spots in Albanian and Serbian.