Organized Crime in General
Throughout the year, the Department continued to participate in the Inter-Institutional Group
for evaluating the implementation of the strategies and action plans against Drugs,
Organized Crime, and Crime Prevention 2009-2012. All the responsible partners submitted
progress reports to the respective working groups, which formed the basis for redrafting
strategies and action plans for 2012-2017. The DSPS worked in partnership with
representatives from the KP; the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, Economy, Culture, and
Education; the judicial and prosecutorial councils; as well as with the European Union Rule of
Law Mission (EULEX), the US ICITAP and the UNDP.
The strategy against drug trafficking aims to maintain public health and prevent drug abuse
by reducing both availability and demand, while the strategy against terrorism strives to
create a safe environment by preventing, pursuing, protecting from and reacting to terrorism
activities. The strategy against organized crime – as an umbrella strategy – outlines the roles
for all law enforcement agencies and foresees further improvements in their work. It also
includes an awareness-raising component to build public support for its implementation.
These draft strategies and action plans, developed with the Department’s support, were
approved by the Government of Kosovo on 19 September 2012. The EU requirements and
conditions of the roadmap for visa liberalization were synchronised and incorporated therein.
As a follow-up to the seminar on “Environmental Crime” held in 2011, in line with a
recommendation from the OSCE, the KP established a new unit with respect to preventing
and countering environmental crime in February 2012. The DSPS worked closely with this
unit and other agencies during the year in order to combat the serious issue of environmental
crime. From 3-5 December, the DSPS and the Kosovo Judicial Institute organized a training
course on the “Prevention and Prosecution of Environmental Crimes” for 15 police officers of
the newly established Environmental Crimes Unit, together with customs officers, judges and
prosecutors. The training was held at KAPS and focused on key environmental issues in
Kosovo, the legislative framework, investigative techniques and co-operation between law
enforcement agencies and judiciary.
With the support of OMIK’s DHRC, the DSPS made progress in involving more prosecutors
and judges in OSCE training activities. The DSPS organized several courses for the KP
during 2012 which were also attended by both prosecutors and judges. Such partnership
training fostered mutual understanding and co-operation and provided a common
perspective when participants worked together on practical classroom-based exercises. The
inclusion of prosecutors and judges received positive feedback from the participants.
Criminal Investigations/Criminal Intelligence
The Department continued to support and enhance capacities within the KP in order to
implement the Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) strategy to support the prevention and
detection of crime at all levels. A strategic review of ILP and its implementation within the KP
was deemed necessary at this stage, as it was thought that such a review would give a
precise indication of what progress the KP has made since the ILP strategy was first
implemented, and what needed to be done in the future to sustain the implementation
programme. Furthermore, the strategic review was also expected to identify the precise
needs of the KP and to ensure that KP policies, procedures and practices in relation to
criminal intelligence were supported by the new IT infrastructure.
In this context the DSPS also organized a meeting with senior representatives from the KP
crime pillar, which provided a strategic overview of 2012, and identified capacity building
issues and areas where the OSCE could provide support. Moreover, on 3 April, the
Department organized a workshop to enable a strategic review of ILP to be conducted jointly
58
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents