Does the Trojka count on HDZ and SNSD: The opposition will not support the urgent procedure for amendments to the Law on Police Officers of BiH

By: Amra Vrabac

At tomorrow's session of the House of Representatives of the BiH PA, Trojka representatives Nihad Omerović, Predrag Kojović, and Jasmin Imamović will seek an addition to the agenda, namely that the amendments to the Law on Police Officers of BiH and the Law on Salaries and Benefits in BiH Institutions be considered under an urgent procedure.

These two proposals have surprised some of the representatives in this house with whom we have spoken in recent days. Some of them were offered to be proposers, which they refused, as they cannot support amendments that do not benefit all police officers, but only those with higher ranks whose work is limited to offices, not field and real police work.

The unions of the three state police agencies have taken a clear stance that the proposed amendments do not have the support of the unions or the majority of police officers. A survey conducted in the State Investigation and Protection Agency shows that 97 percent of respondents do not support these ad hoc amendments.

One of the representatives from the opposition from RS, on whose votes the Trojka counts for the urgent procedure without prior consultation, stated that he will not support the urgent procedure, especially after the resistance coming from all unions representing police officers. He will also inform his colleagues from the opposition from the RS entity about his position. Some representatives from opposition parties have announced that they will not give their support, and the SDA Club, as the largest club in this house, has announced the same.

According to Patria's information, one of the proposers, Jasmin Imamović, tried to gain the support of certain representatives by stating that the largest number of police officers of Bosniak ethnicity are retiring in the next two years. However, the question is where Imamović was in the past two years and why the same proposers did not, for example, seek to admit a larger number of cadets to police agencies by increasing the capacity of the Agency for Education and Professional Training. One such idea by Kemal Ademović was stifled in the House of Peoples of the BiH PA. At the time, Dragan Čović said that it was the job of the Council of Ministers of BiH. However, to this day, neither the Council of Ministers of BiH nor Ivica Bošnjak, in the past year he has been heading the Ministry of Security of BiH, have lifted a finger to change anything. Bošnjak could also take out the proposal from 2022 from his drawer, which he participated in drafting, and constructively propose a new Law on Police Officers of BiH that has the support of the unions.

For example, Imamović, Kojović, and Omerović did not provide data in their proposal on the current number of cadets undergoing training or in the process of recruitment who will start working next year, but only offered data on police officers retiring. It is superfluous to even talk about their inability to list the ranks that exist in these agencies.

Data from the SIPA Trade Union, as well as data found in the annual reports on SIPA's work, show that the staffing level of this agency is around 75%. It is true that a certain number of police officers are missing, but even with the retirement of about 58 officers next year and the admission of a new class of cadets, the staffing level will not fall below 70 percent, which is a satisfactory number.

When it comes to the BiH Border Police, it has been facing a personnel deficit for years, and has never had a full complement of police officers according to the systematization. This has not overly concerned any director who has managed the Border Police of BiH. For example, the 2020 recruitment process, which was marked by a major corruption scandal during Zoran Galić's tenure, was only completed in 2023. During that period, two generations of cadets were lost, which is about 300 police officers who would be employed today. However, neither then nor now has the director of the BiH Border Police requested an increase in the number of cadets or the capacity of the Training Agency. Therefore, this belated concern of the proposers and initiators of the law amendments at the end of 2025 appears hypocritical.

Problems in police agencies are not new. And they will not be solved by adopting such amendments that do not address some of the most important issues, such as promotion and ranking, and the same retirement status for police officers from both entities... And the proposed coefficients for police and military salaries have caused sharp reactions in these agencies, especially since police officers' salaries are increased by 17 KM, and high-ranking officials by up to 170 KM.

And while the procedure is being drawn out, it is interesting how the directors of these agencies are not publicly commenting, let alone jointly addressing the public and offering answers as to whether they agree or disagree with the proposed amendments. As long as they do not say otherwise, the prevailing opinion is that they agree and have lobbied for these amendments. And the least that police officers deserve is to know the clear position of their directors, i.e., whether the law is truly equal for everyone or if it only favors some who must say goodbye to high salaries as early as 2026.

Although a meeting between the proposers and representatives of police unions is planned before tomorrow's session, it would be best for the proposers to withdraw these amendments, as it is clear that they will not have answers to the questions of other representatives about what will be achieved by these laws.