Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the presentation of the new uniforms of the State Police:

Hello to everyone!

It is with pride and particular pleasure that I wish you and all of your colleagues to enjoy these new uniforms, which are not just new clothes but a new and fully operational instrument for the hard and noble work of the state police.

Let me start by expressing my appreciation and gratitude to the Turkish government and personally to the President of Turkey who supported us in this request and made it possible today for our state police to be like every developed police force, with operational uniforms being available to all of those who work every day on the ground and for whom this uniform is necessary, unlike the recent past when precisely the lack of operational uniforms constituted one of the many problems that the state police officers would face.

Many people may be inclined to say that in the end it is just another part of the facade of the state police, but whoever says this does not understand and will not understand that in fact it is an irreplaceable part of being employee and manager of a successful state police that responds to its daily challenges in real time throughout the territory of Albania.

It wasn’t 100 or 10 years ago, but only 3 years ago, when the state police was object of jokes due to its uniform. It wasn’t 100 or 10 years ago, but only 3 years ago, when the state police was perceived by the public opinion as one of the three most corrupt institutions in Albania. And it is only 3 years that this perception by Albanians has been reversed, and as all of the surveys show – especially the surveys conducted by the most prestigious international institutions – today the State Police is the most trusted institution by the citizens of Albania. And they’re not a few, but more than 50% of Albanians rank the state police not just in the first place of their confidence in the institutions of this country, but also with the most positive remarks.

It wasn’t 100 or 10 years ago, but only 3 years ago, when the state police was seen as a refugium peccatorum for those who were able to do nothing and became part of this police coming directly from the channels of the party’s clientele. Whereas for young people with ambition, the state police was the last choice to have a career in their lives.

Today, just 3 years later, more and more young people look proudly at their future in the state police because the state police is not any longer a workplace for those who haven’t studied, for those who are too old or for those who can do no other job. It is first of all a duty, and those who have the privilege to perform this duty feel proud citizens and servants of this country, of this state and of this people.

It wasn’t 100 or 10 years ago, but only 3 years ago, when the state police was betrayed, abandoned and unfinanced. While today, all of you here and your colleagues are witnesses of the fact that your salaries have not only been increased as never before, but also of the daily modernization of the state police through ongoing investments in infrastructure, technology, ongoing education and training for all of you.

Starting from today, citizens will see in the streets of cities a police force that is renewed also in terms of its look, a look that actually reflects faithfully the new content of the work and of the morals of the state police.

All of you are witnesses of the fact that when we took office in a threatening financial situation, and in order to overcome the crisis we had to sign an austerity program with the International Monetary Fund, – the salaries of the police employees increased however by 25%. While with the next year’s budget, starting from 1 March 2017, your wages will not only increase again, but they will reach the high level of our region, by embedding at the same time our commitment to have a state police among the best in the region and among the most financially and morally supported in the region.

Of course, this is the objective of the first 4 years only, while our universally avowed ambition is to make the Albanian state police be among the best police of the EU within a 10-year period. We are determined to move towards this objective, as we are 100% increasingly convinced that this objective is not only possible, but it is also entirely up to us to achieve it earlier than in a 10-year period, starting from 2013.

We are determined to continue implementing a reform that has brought back the state police close to citizens, close to the community, and has reversed an absurd ratio that existed until three years ago with the majority of the state police sitting in offices, while a minority part, betrayed and abandoned, would struggle in the ground, pushing cars that run out of fuel, wearing uniforms that, as I said, more than a reason to respect the image of the state police, were an inspiration for jokes.

As I deliver this speech, I see behind you a very meaningful background: the wall of stars commemorating the police officers fallen in the line of duty. It is neither random nor too much the fact that we have been reiterating every time, since the first day, with deeds rather than with words, not only our respect for the employees of the state police on duty, but also our gratitude for those who have fallen in the line duty. Today, the family of a martyr of the state police is beneficiary of a lifelong pension and of a direct financial support for children, in addition to receiving 10 salaries immediately after their beloved has fallen in the line of duty. No salary, no pension, no reward can compensate for the void left by a martyr in the heart of their family and of their colleagues, but on the other hand we cannot help but recall today that it wasn’t 100 or 10 years ago, but only 3 years ago, when the families of the state police martyrs were abandoned, forgotten and would often feel also humiliated because not only there was no hand reaching out to them, but no door at which they knocked would open.

Very honoured employees of the state police!

Today we are in a period of great importance, in a battle that goes on every day, a struggle to separate the state police from the past once and for all, but also to separate the boundaries between the state and crime in a modern, developed and safe country, boundaries that we found here 3 years ago, and which have been restricted every day thanks to your dedication, thus expanding every day the area in which law and the state operate, while narrowing every day the area of  crime and of its consequences. But there is still a lot to fight against. Crime does not disappear anywhere once and for all, but we have an avowed ambition as an obligation to the citizens of this country and to the next generation, to put the boundaries of crime where crime remains once and for all in the corner, not at the centre of our common life as it used to be until three years ago.

I don’t want to dwell on how much we have done together, but let me say that these new uniforms must be understood by each of you, among other things, as a meaningful expression of our awareness that we still have much more to do together. We will do our best to make you feel increasingly supported and increasingly respected every morning that you leave your homes to serve your country and its citizens, to make you feel good although you leave behind your parents and children, and also make them feel good as they proudly and impatiently wait for you to come back home in the evening.

Gratitude for everything you have done and do!

Respect for your hard work and for your very important achievements in the last three years!

Courage and daily success in your constants efforts to make the state police increasingly a reference point for communities and citizens so that they can feel safer, and see this uniform as a daily ally in their lives and their families.

Many thanks!