Community policing and Roma minorities in Albania: lessons learnt from the police reform after the state crisis of 1997

摘要

Albania constitutes a very specific and challenging case for the analysis of lessons learnt and best practices on community policing and Roma minorities. Albania hardly managed to overcome its Communist legacy and, following a series of failed reform attempts, the country plunged into a major crisis in 1997 leading not only to the breakdown of state institutions, but also to a sudden increase in small arms circulation and civilian arms possession. The Albanian state has subsequently faced a multitude of challenges to rebuild its institutions, reform the police, recollect firearms and introduce community policing. The paper argues that Albanian police reform provides a lessons-rich example of a community-based approach that sought to link development incentives and economic inclusion with arms control initiatives. Today, although Roma-specific police abuses are allegedly less numerous than general police misconduct, reform efforts have suffered from a lack of leadership. The paper argues that promising pilot projects based on economic inclusion and a problem-solving civil society approach were not consolidated. It also highlights that broader societal problems have sustained the infiltration of the police by criminal elements and frustrated efforts to reproduce local achievements at the national level. A major reason for this failure rests in the lack of leadership within the police and authorities to follow-up on initial achievements.