While Katica announces the use of artificial intelligence in the MUP of Sarajevo Canton, citizens ask where the police officers from our neighborhoods have disappeared?

Written by: Amra Vrabac

In recent days, we have witnessed a series of incidents and security challenges in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Numerous citizens rightly ask where the Sarajevo police officers are and what they are doing. On social networks, a large number of Sarajevo residents state that they have not seen police officers or patrols in their neighborhoods for a long time.

And in just a few days, a series of events occurred that should set off all alarms. The brutal murder in the Dobrinja neighborhood, when a young man was thrown from the balcony of an apartment where three suspects had tortured him for hours, happened right next to the police station. Yes, in the Dobrinja neighborhood, the police station is located in a residential building with inadequate access and no parking of its own. Even when you walk through Dobrinja, one of the largest neighborhoods in Sarajevo, you will rarely encounter police officers.

We witness reckless drivers racing along the Transversal (Michael Schumacher Street) every day, but the MUP of Sarajevo Canton has not installed a camera on that road leading to Sarajevo International Airport to at least try to prevent the number of car and motorcycle racers.

This week, bulky waste was set on fire at two locations in Alipašino Polje, and a quick intervention by firefighters prevented the spread. In the nearby parking lot, several thefts have occurred in the past few days. Car windows were smashed, and citizens posted pictures on social networks.

Thanks to social networks, we watch fights between angry drivers on Sarajevo streets every day, and how far things go is also shown by videos in which citizens catch thieves and guard them until the police arrive, or chase them by car through the city if they flee the scene after an accident.

However, these days we have been bombarded with posts about the humanity of police officers who "help old people cross the street, push them in wheelchairs, or provided first aid to the injured until the ambulance arrived." And for such behavior, praise also came from the Minister of Internal Affairs, Admir Katica!? And that shows what kind of system we live in. What should be normal and completely expected from a police officer suddenly becomes news!

And to improve the work of the Sarajevo police, Katica also announces the introduction of artificial intelligence. New cars, equipment, body cameras, a helicopter are already there, only artificial intelligence and robot police officers on Sarajevo streets are missing.

"Artificial intelligence in the work of the MUP of Sarajevo Canton? Why not, within the legal framework and in accordance with all those modern security aspects and norms already applied in the world, because that is the future! Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Sarajevo Canton should lead the way, must think productively and start using all the benefits of artificial intelligence, in a legal and correct way," Katica said in a post on social networks.

You will hardly or never see police officers in trams, patrolling the central city zone where the largest number of tourists and pickpockets are, in neighborhoods or children's parks. And for that, artificial intelligence is certainly not needed, but a simple organization of work and deployment of police officers at critical points.

The Sarajevo police had their hands full this week when threatening emails arrived about explosive devices placed in two shopping centers, the General Hospital, and schools. All reports turned out to be false but also raised the question of how security agencies cooperate and what data exchange is like.

The Intelligence-Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina should play a key role in all this, but it seems that everything comes too late when such events occur. So far, still without victims, fortunately.