DPM Bečić: Employment terminated for 13 more police officers, vetting continues

In line with the legal mechanisms in place and the priority we have set for safeguarding integrity in the security sector, the Minister of the Interior has issued decisions terminating the employment of an additional 13 police officers, pursuant to Article 162, paragraph 1, item 4 of the Law on Internal Affairs.

This is the result of applying the law and implementing a policy that protects the integrity and foundations of the state.

Not a policy of persecution. Not a policy of retaliation. But a policy based on the principle that wearing the police badge carries a far greater degree of responsibility than any ordinary job.

The state grants police officers powers that it grants to almost no other citizen: the authority to arrest and search, use means of coercion, carry firearms, access sensitive information and enter the most restricted areas of the state system.

That is why the state has an obligation to know whom it has entrusted with such powers.

No serious state would say that security concerns are irrelevant and that an officer should remain in their position until they are eventually convicted by a final court ruling.

That would mean confusing criminal proceedings with security responsibility. Anyone who wishes to wear the state’s badge must meet the standards prescribed by law, and by the state. Period.

One cannot continue to receive a salary and serve as a police officer while the police and the prosecution are pursuing criminal charges against them for extremely serious offences. That is the rule of law.

Over the past decades, Montenegro has learned how costly it is when organised crime manages to find its way into state institutions. We have learned what it means when confidential information ends up where it should not, when operations are compromised, and when the line between those pursuing crime and those being pursued becomes blurred.

We do not want those times to ever return. That is serious security policy.

And all honourable police officers should know that this process is, first and foremost, also about them.

It is not fair for an officer who wears the uniform with integrity, works through the night, risks their life and exposes their family to danger to be equated with someone who, through connections, conduct or contacts, compromises the service to which they belong.

Vetting will continue until the system is confident that the people entrusted by citizens with their security deserve both their trust and the trust of the state.