Prime Minister Edi Rama address at the ceremony on 105th anniversary of State Police held in Lezhe on Saturday:

“It is therefore necessary to have such officers disposed of and get the work of the gendarmerie and the police in honest and trained hands, to choose gendarmes and policemen with great care and of a tight rule!” This message was given by Prime Minister Ismail Qemali in 13 January 1913, on the day of establishment of Albanian Police, 105 years ago, as the first institution formed after the declaration of Independence and the establishment of the first sovereign state of Albania.

Hence, we come here to this day, at this jubilee moment to the State Police, after a 105 years journey and the first message of the first Prime Minister in the history of Albanian State sounds current and looks like a preamble of the Vetting process in the State Police. Which means that the greatest challenge accompanying the State Police is the same, has been and will be the same, the challenge to face the evil in society and all those who threaten social coexistence by violating the law, on the one hand and on the other, the evil within oneself, which is a constant threat to any entity and, of course, to such an important institution to the state, as the State Police.

The Police Academy, opened first in Zog’s time, also followed a zigzag path and today is a reborn Academy, in order to be the basis of future ambition, a source from which to constantly regenerate the blood of State Police, promoting not only young girls and boys, capable of serving in the police, but also a relocation of relays in order to increase the quality of the State Police activity in the face of the increased complexity of its challenges. Thus, the constant selection of the right people is a challenge, which guarantees both challenges, that of facing the Police with the evil outside and confronting the Police with the evil within it.

We are very proud today for everything done during this revival period of the State Police following the chaos and abandonment setting of 2013. We are also proud to talk with the dry language of results, beyond our opinions and of course everyone else’s opinon is not always the same towards this renaissance of the State Police.

The dry language of results says that Albania emerged from the map of countries that cultivate and traffic narcotics in 2017. Albania closed an old, deep wound, which had all the infections we acknowledged in 2017. Today, in 2018, Albania has neither Lazarat nor its people dispersed in the body of its territory.

The Police removed over 40 million euros of assets from the hands of criminal organizations in 2017, while 4 years ago, this figure did not cross 1 million euros.

The State Police guaranteed the lowest number of murders in the history of statistics after 1990, in 2017; only 50 murders took place. It is not a very low figure, but is the historic minimum in 27 years and is definitely less than half the 107 casualties that occurred in 2013 or the 126 murders that occurred in 2012. It is a lower figure of murders compared to one of the European Union member states, where much is spoken about Albanian crime.

The number of accidents in 2017 is also the lowest of 27 years.

The number of arrested individuals for trafficking or cultivation of narcotic plants has multiplied.

More people were arrested for narcotics cultivation and trafficking during 2015-2016 than in all previous years, taken together including the two decades when from Albania 900 tons of narcotic substances were trafficked only from the autonomous drug region of Lazarat. 900 tons narcotics have never been achieved in the history of this fight against narcotics cultivators and traffickers within a year span.

The State Police was transformed, according to statistics from the European Union surveys and not in my opinion, from the least trusted institution in the country, along with the court and prosecution, to the country’s most reliable institution within four years. It is reported by the survey of the European Union in 2015 as well as 2016 findings. I am convinced that it will be stated by 2017 survey, expected in spring.

However, this does not mean that the problems highlighted, that the difficult situations identified and that criticisms to the State Police work are irrelevant. It does not mean that the State Police has been immune and untouched by corruption to its high levels in these 4 years. It also does not imply that State Police directors are not involved in criminal activity, in cooperation with drug traffickers. It does not mean that State Police cleansing is a completed process with all the administrative, discharges and penal prosecutions that have taken place over the past 4 years, which are the highest, not in an annual ratio, but over a 4 years ratio to 20 more years. Under no circumtances! It all means that we are absolutely certain, based on the dry language of results, that the necessary and vital cleansing to turn the State Police, not to a police force far better than the one 4 years ago but into a Police as good as the European Union average, we can and will achieve it successfully.

Therefore, we have completed the drafting of the legal basis and are conducting the process of public consultation, within the first 100 days of this mandate, to then transform Vetting in the State Police into a law in the Albanian Parliament. This is a process that will start soon and it is just as important to us as the Vetting undertaken in the justice institutions, as the crime cannot be fought with corrupt prosecutors and judges, but cannot either be fought with corrupt Police directors, chiefs of police stations or corrupt policemen. Such a process will enable the removal of all directors and officers involved in criminal activity, or whose wealth accumulation over these years has unjustified sources.

This will form the basis of our second term and the gurantee that by this mandate’s end we will proudly tell Albanians as well as our partners that: This is the Police force of the Republic of Albania, a Police by European Union standards.

All the results in the fight against cannabis cultivation and trafficking, the results of a fight we dared to open, which we firmly performed and in which we reaped many victories, we also got undisputable costs for those honestly involved in this fight, but as a result of those who were crimnaly involved, it does not mean that we consider a whole set of results to call it terminated, since we have just completed one stage of the fight, guaranteeing the territory of the Republic of Albania, where no cannabis will ever be cultivated. But we must continue with the second phase of the fight, to the end, against the beneficiaries of this criminal activity, whoever and wherever they may be and against all their immovable or financial assets.

This is the reason behind the action plan “The Power of Law” operation, a major operation against criminal groups, to eradicate both cultivations and all the main stems of this activity organized within the Republic of Albania’s territory. That is why I find no common sense in the attacks on the idea of ​​this major operation, which is not an isolated operation of the State Police, but is an international operation involving all Albania’s partners, not because we are incapable of performing this fight but because it is not limited within the borders of the Republic of Albania. Just as the fight against illegal traffickers and trafficking is not a fight of the Albanian government towards Albanian culprits, but it must be an all- together fight against Albanian, Italian, Dutch, British and all kinds of offenders, because we have an international organized crime that seeks an internationally organized response.

Fighting organized crime is not the beginning and end of the State Police mission, as citizens need the State Police, not simply and merely to protect from the consequences of criminal activity but instead need the State Police to be equal before the law, to exploit the spaces of coexistence, be it urban, business or spaces in all other areas of social activity, without being violated by those who infringe the law, to guarantee their possessions and throughout the course of their activity in society.

Much is done in such direction in order to transform the Road Traffic Police, but there is still a lot to do and we will never be able to look at Albanians a 100% and say that this is the Road Traffic Police we want as long as we will we have road checkpoints, which stop people as they please. The moment when we can and will see Albanians in the eye, convinced to say, this is the European Road Traffic Police, will be that moment when Albanians will no longer see police officers on the streets as watchdogs halting people by the farm fence.

We are hence towards achieving it, as we will make the entire national road monitoring system a state-of-the-art, we will allow technology to do the work done by the scattered police constables so far. We will also increase the presence and quality of police work in the community, a pattern of policing that is inherent in demographic transformations, as well as increase interaction intensity within communities and between the citizen and the state which is definitely a successful policing model in the world we are eager to join in.

The living have, but two options to confront the martyrs, leave them in oblivion, or create a myth that can never be subdued around them. The middle solution does not exist. Oblivion is certainly paid for by repetition of sins, while the value of martyrdom’s myth is at the constant motivation of other generations. A great writer says it, Albert Camus, not me and I believe that establishing an uncorrupted and incorruptible, professional and constantly to the service of citizens State Police is inextricably linked to the ongoing honour of both the ceremonial and practical day-to-day care for the families of all officers fallen in line of duty; around 259 since 1990.

I am confident the path ahead is the right one, but there is something to do for the child of a murdered police commissioner, for the girl or boy student who has just finished school, for the widowed wife of a colleague of yours that still does not work and so on. Just as, I cannot help but mention it today: The greatest enemy of the police is not crime, but the loneliness that arises from lack of support, oppression, or lack of attention to hear and understand the problems of police officers. It is not said by me but yet quoted by a great philosopher, besides a renowned writer, Milan Kundera, a man who has recognized this phenomenon closely and has experienced it on his skin.

Abandonment remains Police biggest enemy to this day, abandoning it by some of those who have a microphone and a camera in front and accessing the microphone and the camera to hit the State Police, to demotivate the State Police, to mud-sling State Police in the name of a political fight that in fact has no connection with the political opponent, as it relates to genuine, conscious or unconscious animosity, this is of little importance, such as the result of a complete lack of responsibility in addressing the problems faced today, the State Police and internal issues of the State Police itself.

However, we will firmly continue our way. We are indebted to all those who, since the genesis of State Police, had a vision of how it should be and did within their possibilities to achieve that vision. Like we owe to all those who died in the ranks of the State Police, as we owe to all those who contribute to the State Police to this day, starting from the forces that are in the front line of the fight against crime, parents, who leave their home in the morning, embrace their children and go to work placing their own lives at risk and as we owe to all those girls and boys who are competing to attend the Academy of Security and dream to become part of the Police we all want.

Our long path ahead is endowed with the motivation of great achieved results as well as the great wealth of experience from made mistakes. Who works, makes errors! Who fights cannot only win, it also loses! The awareness of mistakes, the experience of the losses and the determination not to repeat the same mistakes and not to lose for the same reasons makes the difference in service of the future. I assure you, we are capable to make this distinction and over this distinction we will further establish the European police institution we want.

I would like to express my deep respect to everyone and my special thanks to all of you who are standing here and who, besides Lezha wind, that blows so hard, makes me understand better, why Skanderbeg decided to gather in Lezha all princes, you had the misfortune to even endure my long speech, as well as express all due respect to all those who have provided, still do or attend today the academy with the dream to contribute to this body that is vital for Albania we love!