The Serbian Police (), formally the Police of the Republic of Serbia (), is the national civilian police force of Serbia. The Serbian Police are responsible for all local and national law enforcement. It is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
History Serbian Revolution The roots of public security in revolutionary Serbia appear during the Serbian Revolution. At the 1807 Revolutionary Assembly police authority in nahijas (districts) was entrusted to voivodes and obor knezovi, and in local communities to the local knezovi. The executive officers of the obor knezovi were represented by golaći or bećari. Later, the role of executive bodies of the newly established courts was taken over by pandurs.
The organization of police authorities in Belgrade and other places was established on 30 December 1807 with regular and permanent police force stationed in Belgrade, which consisted of: police master (manager of the city police), police-neighborhood-masters (neighborhood managers), lictors (assistant of police master in charge of different departments), scribes and uniformed pandurs. At the Revolutionary Assembly held in 1811, a new reform of state administration was carried out, and the Serbian Governing Council was divided into six ministries. Jakov Nenadović was appointed as the first Minister of Internal Affairs.
In 1815, Prince Miloš Obrenović made a decision on the organization of pandurs - state-wide police officers in charge of public order and security of customs roads. The restored Serbian Soviet also received the function of the supreme police body (with a department for internal and judicial affairs) in 1825. In 1827, the jurisdiction of the Soviet was transferred to the Great People's Court, which in the following year established the function of town policemen and in Belgrade, a special police force, with three policemen. Soon, the function of buljukbaša (superintendent over 22 city police officers) was introduced into the structure of the municipal police of Belgrade.
Principality of Serbia
The 1835 Sretenje Constitution stipulated for the Ministry of the Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Military Affairs to be established. Due to the protests of Turkey and Russia, Prince Miloš Obrenović united military and police affairs shortly after its adoption.
The 1838 Constitution officially established the Ministry of Internal Affairs and confirmed that the minister also assumed the prerogatives of the Minister of War. In 1860 the first unified uniformed and armed gendarmerie company of 120 infantrymen and 15 cavalrymen was formed in Belgrade. From 15 to 17 June 1862, the Serbian Gendarmerie played a crucial role in the conflicts around the Čukur Fountain in Belgrade - a little more than 100 gendarmes opposed a Turkish force several hundred times stronger and practically saved Belgrade and Serbia. As the first conflict took place on All Souls' Day, June 15, this day is nowadays celebrated as the Day of the Serbian Police. Since the Gendarmerie was only responsible for public order and peace in Belgrade, uniformly uniformed and armed Municipal night watches were established in all other towns across the country.
Kingdom of Serbia The 1884 Law on the Gendarmerie established the State Gendarmerie which was organized into detachments with one detachment in Belgrade and every district town. In 1896, the Border Guard was replaced by the Border Gendarmerie, which consisted of cordon commands distributed in five border sections, latter to be abolished in just three years with its responsibilities taken over by the newly-formed Border Troops. The Municipal night watchmen received the same uniforms as the Gendarmerie in 1903, and two years later, in 1905, they became an integral part of the Gendarmerie.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Ministry of Internal Affairs was established in 1918 as the supreme administrative and supervisory authority over all administrative and police bodies in the newly-formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia). In 1919, the Gendarmerie became an integral part of the Royal Army, tasked for watching over public order and security, maintaining order and peace and ensuring the execution of the laws. The Gendarmerie was subordinated to the Minister of Military Affairs in terms of supply, discipline and military training, and in terms of use, training, maintenance of public security and gendarmerie service - to the Ministry of the Internal Affairs. For the purpose of training Gendarmerie personnel, the Gendarmerie NCOs School was formed in Sremska Kamenica in 1919. The first police school, organized by Dr. Archibald Rice, was opened in Belgrade in 1921 and two years later Central School for Police officers was established in Zemun. In 1930 the regional police directorates were established in the seats of banovinas. The regular police duties were performed by corps of uniformed police force classified into: police guards, police agents, supervisors of guards and agents, commanders of guards, and chiefs of agents.
Socialist Yugoslavia According to the 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, the Federal Ministry of the Interior was composed of the People's Militia Directorate, the Public Security Directorate and the State Security Service. The military structure, uniform form and military ranks were approved. The constitutional reforms of 1953 meant the formal renaming of ministries to the secretariats, and so the Federal Secretariat of the Internal Affairs and the republic-level secretariats of the internal affairs appeared. In the course of the demilitarization of the federal secretariat, the system of insignia in the People Militia was changed, the officers were allowed to wear civilian clothes outside the service, and service numbers were depicted on a nickel-plated badge.
In 1956, the first Law on the Organs of Internal Affairs was adopted in the framework of decentralization and a bulk of internal affairs was placed at the disposal of constituent republics. The 1963 Yugoslav Constitution and the 1964 Basic Law on the Service for Internal Affairs continued the process of decentralization, forming the basic bodies of internal affairs at the municipal level. The name People's Militia (Narodna milicija) was changed to Militia (Milicija). At the federal level there was the Federal Secretariat of Internal Affairs. At the constituent republic's levels there were, respectively, republican secretariats of internal affairs. In essence, relations between the federal and republican police forces were based on the principles of agreements, assistance and cooperation in work, and not on hierarchical principles with subordination. Differences in funding and decentralization led to large differences in the organization of the Militia and the bodies of the Federal Secretariat of Internal Affairs.
The Militia, in charge of fighting crime, traffic security and the protection of borders was stripped of its military status, and European-styled police ranks were adopted for the republican militias during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Republic of Serbia In 1991, the Ministry of Internal Affairs succeeded previous Secretariat of Internal Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Militsiya was reorganized in 1992 in then-constituted Republic of Serbia and was subordinated to the newly-established Public Security Directorate (Resor javne bezbednosti - RJB). In 1996, the Militsiya was renamed to Police (Policija).
During the Kosovo war, police units, especially special police units, committed numerous crimes. According to reports, special police forces were responsible for Gornje Obrinje massacre, Krusha massacres, Suva Reka massacre, Izbica massacre, Dubrava Prison massacre, and many other crimes. After the war, police general Sreten Lukić was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to 22 years in prison for deportations, forced relocations, murders, persecutions and other inhumane acts works.Presuda Ojdaniću i saradnicima Also, some direct perpetrators of war crimes were convicted before the Serbian courts.
Organization The Serbian Police is a centralized police force, organised under the operational authority of the Police Directorate which devolves immediate conducting of police affairs to regional police directorates.
National level The Police Directorate (Direkcija Policije), headed by the Police Director (Direktor Policije), has operational authority over police affairs in the country. It is subdivided into general directorates and specialized units.
General directorates of the Police Directorate are:
General Police Directorate (Uprava policije) - in charge of general law enforcement operations and public security. Traffic Police Directorate (Uprava saobraćajne policije) - responsible for traffic law enforcement and management of traffic on public roads and streets. Criminal Police Directorate (Uprava kriminalističke policije) - in charge of investigation and prevention of crimes and felonies. Border Police Directorate (Uprava granične policije) - tasked with protection and control of borders, including fight against the migrant smuggling and human trafficking. Directorate for Administrative Affairs (Uprava za upravne poslove) - responsible for police administrative services to the general public, including issuing of national identity cards, driver's licences, passports, residential and working permits (for foreign citizens), registration of motor vehicles and issuing registration plates. Directorate for Analytics (Uprava za analitiku) - in charge of analysing and syntesing collected intelligence data, particularly by monitoring groups and organisations likely to be linked to organized crime and drug trafficking. Technical Directorate (Uprava za tehniku) - tasked with forensics work in order to provide evidence during criminal investigation in particular, utilizing numerous practices such as the analysis of DNA, fingerprints, bloodstain patterns, firearms, ballistics, toxicology, as well as analysis of financial, banking, or other numerical data for use in financial crime investigation.
Specialized units of the Police Directorate include:
Gendarmery (Žandarmerija) - tasked with restoring public order if it has been heavily disturbed; countering organized crime, terrorist and other violent groups; repressing prison riots; providing security to the security-sensitive foreign embassies in Serbia. Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (Specijalna antiteroristička jedinica) - tasked for handling situations that are beyond the capabilities of regular police units because of the level of violence (or risk of violence) involved. Helicopter Unit (Helikopterska jedinica) - responsible for providing air support to various general directorates and units: air monitoring of general public security (riot control) in cooperation with the General Police Directorate, air monitoring of road traffic in cooperation with the Traffic Police Directorate, air monitoring of borders in cooperation with the Border Police Directorate; air support (including parachuting) for Special Anti-Terrorist Unit and the Gendarmery; aerial firefighting, medical evacuation, search and rescue, and VIP transport (transport of the President of the Republic, Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs). Unit for the Protection of the Important Persons and Residences (Jedinica za obezbeđenje određenih ličnosti i objekata) - tasked with ensuring the body protection and physical security of residences of Prime Minister, President of the National Assembly, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Justice, Supreme Public Prosecutor, Public Prosecutor for the Organized Crime, Police Director; as well as visiting foreign dignitaries.