European Union support contributed to reaching in 2020 a record level of citizens’ confidence in police

On 6 August 2019, Promo-LEX Association organised a public event to present Report No. 5 on Civic Monitoring of Police Reform in Moldova. The Report was developed within the “Civic Monitoring of Police Reform in the Republic of Moldova” Project, implemented with the EU financial support during the period from 14 December 2018 through 13 December 2021. The Project overall objective is to strengthen accountability, efficiency and transparency of police reform in the Republic of Moldova.

The event took place at the General Police Inspectorate Headquarters and was attended by Ianus Erhan, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; Marin Maxian, Deputy Head of the General Police Inspectorate; Gintautas Baranauskas, Deputy Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova; Brett Rose, Director of Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement of the U.S. Embassy to the Republic of Moldova; Nicolae Panfil, Promo-LEX Association Programme Director, as well as by other national experts.

According to Report No. 5, by the end of 2020, out of 31 sub-actions planned to be carried out, only 12 (38.7%) were completed in full, other 12 were completed in part (38.7%), and 5 sub- actions (16.1%) were not completed at all. Two sub-actions (6.5%) were not evaluated due to immeasurable indicators.

The main accomplishment in implementing the Police Development Strategy throughout 2020 is achieving the 41%-target of citizens’ confidence in Police – an indicator set up by the Funding Agreement of the “Support for Police Reform” Programme, concluded by the European Commission and the Government of the Republic of Moldova. Amongst other accomplishments of Strategy implementation, it is key to mention cutting down the average response time to citizens’ calls; putting 19 Police sectors of country Police Inspectorates into service; setting and developing the system of communications for Police operative purposes, as well as providing the specialised and territorial subdivisions with TETRA equipment.

Nonetheless, some provisions of the 2016 – 2020 Police Development Strategy were not carried out in 2020. The main 2020 deficiency highlighted by Promo-LEX experts refers to the failure to devolve the activity of public order maintenance and provision at the level of Police territorial subdivisions.

Other four reports were developed previously within the “Civic Monitoring of Police Reform in the Republic of Moldova” Project. A summary monitoring report of the 2016 – 2020 Police Development Strategy should be developed and made public by the end of Project implementation.