Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the special conference on the results of the first two months of the “Digital Police Station” project:

The moment has come today to take stock of this new structure, as I would call it, which is in fact just an application that in only 10 weeks has involved a large number of citizens, in cooperation with the State Police, to prevent or punish illegal behavior and actions.

Actually, 14 thousand reports in 10 weeks are a fantastic figure to believe that this application is a success story, and to believe that in the success story that the State Police is writing every day there is still much room to improve, to be sophisticated and to become more effective in addressing citizens’ concerns and complaints in real time, but also to consolidate results.

Consolidation of results is the most significant point that we should aim at, in order to not see emptied what we achieve today, but in order to continue building tomorrow on what we achieved today.

Thanks to this new instrument at its disposal, the State Police has succeeded in addressing in real time a number of concerns and complaints, in addition to marking in real time a number of successes in preventing murders due to immediate reports by active citizens.

It was important to publicly crown this moment to continue work in this direction that is the most difficult direction; the direction of building an ongoing confidence of citizens, which is worth it if citizens are engaged in a collaboration with the police forces. So, what citizens do consciously in the nearest police station is not a useless effort made for nothing, but its results are worth the effort.

Figures of these ten weeks speak for themselves. The representative of Vodafone and the Minister of Interior said something about it, but if we dwell into the content of the statistical base, there are many things to understand and to say. Of course, time is totally insufficient to align all the things that are to be said on the basis of what is understood. But the point is that the creation of this virtual institution on the smartphones of every citizen who has downloaded this app has brought an added value with a great importance for the State Police.

Of course, there are still improvements to be made in terms of response. There are still improvements to be made in terms of monitoring, whether of complaints or reports, or of the quality of the response, but it is certain that if we managed to put this milestone in ten weeks, without any doubt we will build stone by stone a common great wall between the State Police and citizens to curb not only crimes that have as consequence loss of human lives, but also behaviors that are contrary to law, and illegal actions that are contrary to the common desire of communities to live in environments where the rule of law is indisputable.

It is worth repeating that the State Police is starting during this period of the year to reap the rewards of a thorough work for its recovery and rebirth in the best meaning of these words. This is no small thing; on the contrary, it is very encouraging that in the first half of the year we have had 50% less murders than every previous year since we have had a statistical register. So, basically, from 1992 to date, compared with the first six months of this year, 50% more murders have been recorded every year. This drastic drop in the number of murders is very encouraging, just as is very encouraging the intensive and ongoing fight, day after day, against drugs and drug trafficking which has given tangible results.

It’s a fact that Albania has changed position in the eyes of international partners, from a place where it used to co-exist with drugs and drug trafficking as an untouchable normality, in a country where drugs and drugs trafficking are fought on a daily basis, where there are results on a daily basis, but where there is of course still much to do, and where the message is very clear: there is no peace in our territory for those who grow and smuggle narcotics, and there is no peace between them and the State Police and our government. There will be no peace until this phenomenon reaches the quotas considered normal in the average of the European Union.

Just as there will be no peace for the battle within the State Police against all elements that do not fit the morals, values or objectives that the State Police has today. 36 effectives of the State Police have been arrested only in this 6-month period as a result of the police reaction to the elements that are unworthy to be part of the State Police, and which deserve to be punished under the law. Elements involved in illegal activity within the State Police amounted to 11% of the entire body that we inherited. In this regard, there will be no peace until violation of law by the State Police employees becomes an isolated incident rather than part of the daily work routine. I believe that there is still much to do in this regard. We also wish to see another important step of the Ministry of Interior in terms of utilization of the new technology to increase the quality of service and results of the State Police.

This step consists in a physical transformation of police forces operating on the ground. The new technology will enable every policeman to be connected online to the operating room and monitor the activity of the State Police. This is a very ambitious and expensive project, but we are determined to finalize it and have it started in Tirana, I believe, in fall. Every police officer in Tirana will be on the ground, constantly connected to the operative room with incorporated cameras. Every activity of every effective of the police on the ground will be thoroughly monitored second to second in all aspects, from the location, movement, communication with citizens, to the response to any behavior or action infringing the law. This will bring, without doubt, a greater opportunity for police managers to understand the effectiveness of the distribution plan of police forces on the ground, to understand the effectiveness of every single police patrol and of every police effective having a duty on the ground, and to understand also the level of efficiency in the use of all means, vehicles and other tools, as well as to have on this basis very significant statistics that will help the leading body to improve continuously its work on planning, organization and coordination of forces. But, this will help in particular so that no one can pick up the phone and claim to being bothered with no reason by the police forces. No one will pick up the phone to complain that the conduct of policemen or police patrol was indecent or brutal, and on the other hand none of the police officers cannot justify themselves by lying or trying to manipulate their bosses when there is a complaint, because every complaint will be verified with audio and video every second of the development of an event.

The policeman equipped with digital technology and digitally connected with the management room will be monitored in every second of his activity. Therefore, it will be possible to understand the level of communication in order to promote those who have the required standard of communication, and to penalize those who fail communicating according to the standard that we want the State Police to have. This project will start in Tirana and will be gradually spread across the country.

Within a few years, we will have across the Albanian territory police officers connected online from anywhere in the country. In addition, through the coordination of management rooms, it will be entirely possible for the center to organize and coordinate the operations requiring interaction, but above all to be able to monitor and correct the way police departments or stations operate in terms of use of human resources. In parallel, we strongly believe that the reborn Security Academy will give us in a few years what we are desperately lacking: a renewed police forces, not only from a quantitative but also from a qualitative point of view.

We have inherited the oldest police forces in terms of age, the less educated in Europe, and with the smallest number at a territorial level. All three are weak points, very weak points that we are trying every day to correct through intervention.

Security Academy is the support without which it is impossible for the correction to happen at the time we want it to happen and with the required quality.

Comprehensive reform of the State Police is still an ongoing process, and there is still much to build on the strong fundamentals that have been laid.

The fact that the Ministry of Interior, under the leadership of the Minister of Interior, has today become the locomotive of innovation within our government is a fact to be commended loudly, and which encourages us strongly, because what the digital station showed is very simple. Today, we live at a time where we are lucky enough to look at the gap between us and developed countries as a gap that can be removed very soon, if we compare it to the time when this would have required 10 or 20 years ago, because despite our backwardness, the opportunities provided to us by the digital era are so big that they are enough for us to run with a vision, with ideas and with determination, and to use these opportunities in order to find ourselves much sooner that we could imagine in a totally new situation, in every sector. This sector is definitely one of the most meaningful areas of success and great opportunities for further success.

It only remains for me that to congratulate all those who participated in this project, all those involved in the innovation team of the Ministry of Interior, but above all, all leaders of the State Police who have embraced this new philosophy without reservations, and who have given very encouraging evidence, by the response given to citizens on the bridge of virtual communication through the Digital Police Station, of their awareness that we are now at a time where not only we cannot resolve everything simply and only by using effectives on the ground, but we can solve a lot and very quickly by putting citizens between ourselves and the effectives. As demonstrated by the Digital Police Station, citizens as an active force have a tremendous potential that has not been used yet. The use of this potential will lead us sooner than later in a completely different situation in the relation of our country with crime, of our country with corruption and in the relation of our communities with democratic coexistence within a fixed framework of a real legal order.

Thank you very much!

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The Ministry of Interior announced in a special conference the first two-month results of the “Digital Police Station” project.

Over 45.000 downloads and approximately 14.000 reports have been counted in the first 10 weeks only.  The application has completely avoided corruption attempts; it has avoided contact with police personnel, in addition to eliminating bureaucratic reporting procedures which has saved citizens time in reporting.

In addition, the application allows citizens to choose anonymity and to follow the reaction of the police to their reporting.