BiH Border Police to lack 900 officers by year-end, capacity expansion requested for training agency

By: A. Vrabac

Training of BiH Border Police cadets will begin today at the Agency for Education and Professional Development in Mostar, almost three years after the November 2020 recruitment drive. These are cadets in the rank of police officer and junior inspector.

The decision signed by the Director of the BiH Border Police, Mirko Kuprešaković, does not state the number of cadets, although the recruitment drive sought 150 (125 police officers and 25 junior inspectors). Due to problems that arose during the recruitment process, a court case for high corruption that accompanied the recruitment, a lengthy appeals process, and repeated testing because some candidates did not appear for the tests, 125 cadets have been sent for training.

And as commendable as it is that the recruitment process has finally concluded, this number is nowhere near sufficient for the normal functioning of the BiH Border Police, especially concerning a timely response to the migrant crisis. Precisely because of the insufficient number of officers, the BiH Border Police is assisted by members of other police agencies.

And the situation is not good. Currently, the Border Police is short of almost 600 police officers. In March of this year, the official figure, as of the end of 2022, was 519 police officers.

In the delegate initiative by Kemal Ademović, which the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament will consider at its session on October 4, it is stated that by the end of 2023, 300 police officers will meet the conditions for retirement. Director Kuprešaković informed the Joint Committee for Defense and Security about this at the session on August 21.

With the existing staff deficit and the large number of officers retiring, the BiH Border Police will face significant problems in its functioning and the performance of its regular duties.

In his initiative of August 24, which the House of Peoples is yet to consider, Ademović requests that the capacity of the Agency for Education and Professional Development be expanded for at least 100 trainees. The current capacity is 150 trainees.

The training of trainees lasts seven months, which is why it is necessary to increase the capacity for training candidates so that a larger number of police officers can be trained.

Ademović requested that within three months of the adoption of this initiative, the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Ministry of Security of BiH initiate the procedure for expanding the Agency's capacity.

Given this deficit, it is expected that the Council of Ministers of BiH will very quickly adopt a decision on the additional employment of police officers. However, this time the recruitment process should be as short as possible.