MUP KS police officers send public letter to Minister Katica: Is the goal of your work to undermine the police?

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - A letter signed by MUP KS police officers arrived at the Novinska agencija Patria today. 

In the letter, which concerns the Minister of Internal Affairs of KS, Admir Katica, the police officers are raising concerns about the announced hiring of 100 junior inspectors. The Novinska agencija Patria is publishing parts of this letter and the questions that the police officers, under the condition of anonymity, have sent to Minister Katica. 

“What hurts us? The purchase of a helicopter hurts us, and no one mentions that police officers have been walking in one pair of boots and one pair of shoes for nine years! The purchase of body cameras hurts us, and we received the last winter and summer jackets also nine years ago! The purchase of new official badges hurts us, as if the old ones are not functional, especially at a time when the entire canton and country are in debt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The minister is currently changing our emblem, which has been the symbol of our MUP for over twenty years, inventing some new one, which he perhaps likes better, or is it just about procurement and tenders in the background? Why didn't the minister, following the example of other police agencies in our country, buy MUP KS police officers knitted winter hats for winter working conditions, is it more important to protect us and our health than anything else, minister?”, part of the police officers' letter reads.

Also, the police officers ask Minister Katica if he knows how many police officers in MUP KS have completed university degrees and master’s degrees.

“Do you know the number of graduated criminologists and lawyers in the rank of police officer and senior police officer, on the street? Do you, minister, ever think about these people, or do you only think about hiring your new staff? Why, minister, don't you publicly announce the number of police officers who have left the Police Administration in the last four years, the years of your first and second terms? What is the reason for that? You talk about introducing professionalism, offices, and we support you there, but do you, Minister Katica, consider a graduated criminologist without experience in the field to be a greater expert than a graduated criminologist with 10-20 years of experience in the lowest police ranks, a police officer on the street with a university degree? Who, minister, thinks about these people? In what way, minister, can we have motivation and willingness for further work when we have no perspective and future in our collective, when we witness wrong decisions based on which someone without a day of work experience will immediately become a junior inspector, a superior/manager according to the hierarchy, to police officers with the same profession and completed education, who, unlike him, have guarded the city streets for 10 years, experienced various insults and outbursts, went through a lot of unpleasant things and gained immense experience?”, they ask.

The police officers further ask if Minister Katica is consciously destabilizing the MUP by appointing individuals without work experience to leadership positions.

“Look at how police forces in the region do it, how they do it in modern European countries. They all take the best from their ranks and give them opportunities for advancement, and educate their staff as needed, only we in Sarajevo Canton will hire inexperienced civilians to be superiors to experienced police officers! Have you, minister, read the Law on Police Officers and the Rulebook on Internal Organization? Do you know, minister, that according to this Law and Rulebook, in case of a shortage of personnel in the rank of Junior Inspector, 80% are filled from the employees of the Police Administration, and 20% from the general public! Does MUP lack 500 junior inspectors? Or will we, for the next 15 years, not give capable, educated, and experienced employees the opportunity to advance, even though the law unequivocally allows it? You are consciously breaking the law, minister!!! You are aware of that”, the letter states.

The police officers claim that the Trade Union is also disintegrating and ask if the KS police force is being undermined.

“You do not want to procure new uniforms and footwear, nor other necessary equipment, but you are buying cameras and new badges, planning to hire new people without the necessary knowledge and experience in the field to be officers and to lead the MUP, and you say that you will achieve great progress for this institution, of course you will, but only for the benefit of those who are destroying Bosnia and Herzegovina and working diligently every day to destabilize it”, the letter states.