Final findings of Promo-LEX Association on the implementation of Police Reform

On 9 December 2021 Promo-LEX Association organized a round table discussion to present the Final Report on the Civic Monitoring of Police Development Strategy. The event took place in the context of completing the “Civic Monitoring of Police Reform” Project, funded by the European Union and implemented between 14 December 2018 and 13 December 2021.

The report presents the main achievements and drawbacks identified by monitoring the implementation of the 2016-2020 Police Development Strategy and of the 2017-2020 Policy Matrix for Budget Support Implementation. The document summarizes the findings and recommendations formulated in the five semestrial/annual reports produced earlier.

According to Promo-LEX experts, most of the assumed commitments were fulfilled at the beginning and at the end of the Strategy implementation period.

Regarding the extent to which the 5 objectives were achieved, out of the 84 activities planned, 27 were achieved (32%), 31 – achieved partially (37%), and the other 15 are outstanding (18%). At the same time, the performance indicators for 11 activities (13%) were formulated too generally, and hence it was not possible to measure the extent to which they were achieved.

The factors that affected the implementation of Police Development Strategy include: the Government changed three times, respectively there were three Ministers of Internal Affairs (MIA) and four heads/interim heads of the General Police Inspectorate; staff turnover, moratorium over the vacancies at GPI and MIA, and the COVID-19 pandemic during the last year of reform implementation. However, according to the Financial Agreement of the ‘Support for Police Reform’ Program, concluded between the European Union and the Government of the Republic of Moldova, people’s trust in the police was established as an indicator to measure the impact of the reform. Thus, during the Strategy implementation period, a trend of increasing people’s trust in the Police was noticed, from 25.8% in April 2016 to 40.9% in October 2020 (according to Public Opinion Barometer). However, this indicator is fluctuating and, in June 2021, the trust in Police dropped to 30.9%.

To ensure the sustainability of the obtained results, and in order to remove the system-related problems, we encourage MIA, GPI and other relevant public authorities to ensure continuity of police development efforts by developing and implementing new strategy papers. In this regard, Promo-LEX experts formulated a series of recommendations, included in the final section of the report.