Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks during meeting at Security Academy that opens its doors to students of excellence:

This is a good day for the State Police as, for first time ever, a new practice comes into force, that of opening the Security Academy doors to best performing and excellent students from various faculties, ranging from the Faculty of Economics to that of Informatics, who will join the state police body, bringing fresh knowledge and energy and, above all, a new culture.

On the other hand, it is also a beautiful day because the first batch of 52 excellent university graduates will start advanced training course at the Security Academy, joining an incredibly delicate and difficult, yet important process of renewal and strengthening of the criminal police organization. This is a State Police department where the need for know-how, the need for increased capacities and fill an inherited vacuum over the years is high on the agenda.

For the first time, the State Police issue call for application to excellent students also as part of the government commitment under the Pact for the University, which provides best performing students and university graduates with direct employment access and experience gaining in the public administration and, indeed, after a six-month education program and a three-month internship program, the group of 52 excellent university graduates will serve as police commissioners. They were picked following a selection process among 589 applicants and the process reaffirmed our commitment to ensure a merit-based and performance-based process, without considering the applicant’s name or political affiliations. It is a process due to reopen for best performing students in September this year in a second recruitment stage in order to broaden opportunities for the best performing candidates as well as to rejuvenate the country’s police force.

I am pleased that another standard has been set in this process, a new standard on knowledge of the English language, because I believe there could be no modern criminal police force should there not exist instruments to live with the daily of developments around us and with the best standards information and of course such information can only be found by mastering English too.

On the other hand, I am very pleased that newly graduates in law, economics and information technology are today a testimony to this willingness, also the first witnesses to a process, being confident that many others will follow the suit and join this process.

For us, it is quite clear that the generation renewal of the State Police is a tremendous challenge at a time, as the Interior Minister rightly underlined, this academy was abandoned and it was actually closed down for years and now has already begun to provide its initial contributions to this renewal process, producing the first cadres after becoming fully operational.

On the other hand, a larger group of 213 students, who have enrolled in the State Police’s academy after a transparent selection and contest process and who will join the General Patrol services upon graduation, are attending the today’s event. I would like to address each and every one of them saying you are the very evidence of willingness to conduct merit-based processes that evaluate your performance and your parents’ investment.

Following a decade of closure and abandonment, this Academy has been revived although it needs a lot to be done yet. Therefore, this Academy will be included in the major reconstruction programme under the recent Pact for the University. It will be reconstructed under a government-funded project.

I wish and believe that the Academy officials, together with the Minister and the Ministry of Interior, the Academy’s main supporter, will make available an ambitious reconstruction project that would address all the infrastructure and logistics needs and didactic tools, as I have carefully listened to the concerns expressed by the Academy professors about the considerable shortages in scientific labs and didactic tools and I want to assure you that all these concerns will be involved in the funding program, hoping that a year from today the Academy becomes a large construction site, just as the whole network of universities so that make an epochal transformation in this respect.

Increasing the quality of human resources, Academy enrolment of a growing number of boys and girls who have not merely the ambition to put on this sacred state uniform, but also join the police force after their and their parents’ significant investment and our criteria to allow joining this Academy not just individuals, but very good performing ones and excellent behaviour, represent an additional obligation to provide you with the best conditions possible and make outmost efforts to provide you best didactic tools and labs in exchange of your maximal commitment and service to the citizens and our people after your graduation.

However, I believe you are joining the State Police at a crucially important stage between the previously betrayed and abandoned police force that, not according to me, but according to reports by our partners, who have always supported Albanian police – and I avail myself the opportunity to appreciate them for their participation in this event – were the worst and lowest paid, the aged and the most illiterate police force in terms of the regional average.

Today we have accomplished the objective set forth on a detailed report we have prepared together with our partners several years ago and it concerns the level of the police officer salaries, which means that their pay is not satisfactory, but we will hike the police wages in the future. At the same time, we have start to address the aging and education problem, but it will certainly take several years, because education and filling the education shortcomings is not merely a matter of desire, but also a matter of patience.

On the other hand, with regards to the aging police force, I believe that a reform launched by the Minister of Interior and the creation of a new service structure within the State Police will allow for a smooth transition between the old and the new generations of the service and recruitment of more young people, providing the older officers the opportunity to receive a monthly salary by being tasked with guarding state institutions and private facilities, providing provide another important contribution to society by clearing a jungle of private police structures and security companies, which are often the worst representation of the humans’ ill-treatment in terms of salaries and social insurance contributions. Such companies are often the largest beneficiaries of public funds given the security needs of many institutions, but there is no way they can provide services that the State Police will be able to deliver through this modern company, which will make sure that the aged policemen continue to serve.

To conclude, I want to say that not me, neither the Interior Minister nor the State Police Director, but the facts and figures speak best about the fact that we are in an intermediate phase where there are many reasons to be proud about whatever has been already done. Just as there are many motives to look for much more.

State Police have made progress in all aspects and not just the natural progress every organization makes each year, but really a significant progress. In January 2019 alone, over EUR 5 million in crime proceeds has been sequestered, whereas the crime assets seized in 2013 amounted to around EUR 1.2 million only.

Few weeks ago, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza reaffirmed Albania has been cleaned from the widespread cannabis phenomenon. It would suffice a data on the number of reconnaissance flight missions over the territory of Albania compared to the five previous years combined and the cannabis quantity cultivated in 2018 was estimated around 0.8 hectares, practically nothing, while five years ago only the Guardia di Finanza helicopters had discovered more than 320 hectares although the number of reconnaissance flights was very limited. This represents a great leap, which doesn’t mean that we have already overcome the challenge of combating drug trafficking, on the contrary, it is a challenge facing all countries and there is no way it can’t be a challenge for this country. However, I strongly believe that thanks also to the fresh and significant impetus provided by the Minister of Interior as part of a continuous good job and the Power of Law operation, as well as the growing interaction with the other institutions and law enforcement agencies, we have no reasons not to be confident about a much better future.

Thank you very much!