Organization
All units of the Police Directorate report to the Police Director. Police Directorate of Montenegro is a law enforcement agency under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Interior. Ministry maintains direct control over internal affairs, issuance of personal documents for Montenegrin citizens (ID, drivers licence and passport), emergency situations management, human resources, financial and budgetary management of Police Directorate. Thus, regarding law enforcement matters, the role of the Minister of the Interior is supervisory, and he has no operational authority over police officers.
National level
On a national level, Police Directorate organized into 5 departments, which are main operational units of police, each headed by Deputy Police Director, while 3 sections and 4 units serve in a support and administrative tasks:
- General Authority Police Department
- Criminal Investigations Police Department
- Border Police Department
- Special Purpose Police Department
- Financial Intelligence Department
In addition to police departments, there are seven additional organizational units, for support and administrative tasks on a national level:
- International Police Cooperation and Public Relations Section
- Analytics and Police Activities Development Section
- Forensic Center
- Telecommunication and Electronics Section
- Information Security and Data Processing Center
- Human Resources and Legal Affairs Unit
- Financial, General and Auxiliary Affairs Unit
Territorial units
For direct execution of law enforcement tasks on the territory of Montenegro, 8 Regional Police Units (Područne Jedinice Policije) exist:
- Podgorica Regional Police Unit (with Police Outposts in Tuzi, Danilovgrad, Cetinje and Kolašin)
- Nikšić Regional Police Unit (with Police Outposts in Plužine and Šavnik)
- Bar Regional Police Unit (with Police Outpost in Ulcinj)
- Herceg Novi Regional Police Unit (with Police Outposts in Kotor and Tivat)
- Berane Regional Police Unit (with Police Outposts in Rožaje, Plav, Gusinje, Petnjica and Andrijevica)
- Bijelo Polje Regional Police Unit (with Police Outpost in Mojkovac)
- Pljevlja Regional Police Unit (with Police Outpost in Žabljak)
- Budva Regional Police Unit
Police of Montenegro is legally governed by Law on Internal Affairs of Montenegro (Zakon o unutrašnjim poslovima). In criminal matters, Police is also bound to adhere to Criminal procedure law of Montenegro (Zakonik o krivičnom postupku), and its officers are required to conduct criminal investigations per instructions of Montenegrin public prosecutors.
Resources and equipment
The Police Directorate has 4,282 employees in 2020:
- 4,077 sworn police officers
- 2,935 Police Officers
- 131 Police Sergeants
- 953 Police Inspectors
- 58 Police Advisors
- 205 administrative and support personnel
Public law and order officer on duty is usually equipped with a side gun (usually a Glock 17, CZ 99 are phased out), a pair of handcuffs, a police baton, and a Motorola TETRA MTP 850 S radio communication device.
The Police Directorate operates a fleet of road vehicles, numbering 470 in 2016. Standard patrol car is a white Opel Astra J saloon, although various other vehicles are also operating, notably Dacia Dusters as Border police patrol cars. Special police units are usually seen in Land Rover Defender off-road vehicles and BOV-M armoured vehicles.
Police Headquarters building is located on 22 Svetog Petra Cetinjskog Boulevard, in central Podgorica. It was erected in 2010 and has 9,360 m2 (100,800 sq ft) of office space, and also houses Podgorica Regional Police Unit. In Podgorica, aside from the new headquarters building, Police of Montenegro uses the old Ministry of the Interior building (located next to the new one), the "limenka" ("the can") building, logistics complex in Zagorič suburb and Special Units training camp in Zlatica suburb.
The Police Academy is located in Danilovgrad, and provides both basic police education, and professional and specialized training. Forensic Center is also located in Danilovgrad.
Aviation Unit
Montenegro's Civil Police Aviation Unit forms part of the Montenegro Government Aviation Unit, and purchased its first aircraft in 1972, with three more SA341 Gazelles transferred from the military air force in the 1990s. [1] Aviation unit also operates two Augusta-Bell AB412. All helicopters are based at Golubovci Airport, Podgorica. [2]
Montenegro is a country in Southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. It is bordered by Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, and Croatia and the Adriatic Sea to the northwest with a coastline of 293.5 km. Podgorica is the country's capital and its largest city; it covers 10.4% of Montenegro's territory of 13,812 square kilometres (5,333 sq mi), and is home to roughly 31% of its total population of 621,000. Cetinje is the former royal capital and cultural centre of Montenegro and is the location of several national institutions, including the official residence of the President of Montenegro.
Milo Đukanović is a Montenegrin politician who served as the President of Montenegro from 2018 to 2023, previously serving in the role from 1998 to 2002. He also served as the Prime Minister of Montenegro and was the long-term president of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, originally the Montenegrin branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which governed Montenegro alone or in a coalition from the introduction of multi-party politics in the early 1990s until its defeat in the 2020 parliamentary election. He is the longest-ruling contemporary politician in Europe, having held key positions in the country for over 33 years. However, he was defeated by the 36-year-old centrist former economy minister, Jakov Milatović, after the presidential run-off held on 2 April 2023.
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The Armed Forces of Montenegro are the military forces of Montenegro. The Armed Forces consists of an army, navy and air force.
Languages of Montenegro are languages that are spoken in Montenegro. According to the Constitution of Montenegro, adopted in 2007, Montenegro has only one official language, specified as Montenegrin. The Montenegrin language is written in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, but there is a growing political movement to use only the Latin alphabet.
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Montenegro is a transit, source, and destination country for men, women, and girls who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced prostitution and forced labor. Trafficking victims are mostly females from Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Montenegro, who migrate or are smuggled through the country en route to other destinations and subjected to conditions of forced prostitution in Montenegro. Roma children are coerced into organized street begging in the country. According to NGOs and international experts, mainly foreign men and boys are subjected to forced labor in Montenegro's growing construction industry. Montenegrin women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution within the country and in other Balkan countries; anecdotal reports indicate at least one Montenegrin girl was subjected to conditions of forced prostitution in Serbia during the reporting period. Anecdotal reports in 2009 also indicated some women and girls from Serbia and other countries in this region are subjected to conditions of forced prostitution in Montenegro. Criminal networks operating in Montenegro's expanding tourism industry are reportedly engaged in trafficking for the purpose forced prostitution. According to the Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe, several sources question the Montenegrin government's official stance that Montenegro does not have a considerable trafficking problem.
Nebojša Vučinić is a Montenegrin judge born in Cetinje, Montenegro, and was the judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Montenegro until July 2018.
Podgorica is the capital and largest city of Montenegro. According to 2011 census, the population of Podgorica city proper is 150,799, while Podgorica Capital City has a population of 185,937.
Dritan Abazović is a Montenegrin politician who served as Prime Minister of Montenegro and as acting Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2022 to 2023. An ethnic Albanian, he heads the United Reform Action party. He previously served as deputy prime minister in the cabinet of Zdravko Krivokapić from 2020 until 2022.
A coup d'état in the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica was allegedly planned and prepared for 16 October 2016, the day of the parliamentary election, according to Montenegro's special prosecutor. In September 2017, the trial of those indicted in connection with the plot began in the High Court in Podgorica, the indictees including leaders of the Montenegrin opposition and two alleged Russian intelligence agents. Russian government officials denied any involvement. In 2019, the Higher Court found the accused guilty of plotting to commit ″terrorist acts″, also of "undermine the constitutional order of Montenegro" and first instance sentenced 13 people. In February 2021, the appellate court annulled the first instance verdict on all counts of the indictment.
In late December 2019, a wave of protests started against the controversial, newly adopted "Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities" which effectively transferred ownership of church buildings and estates built before 1918 from the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro to the Montenegrin state. The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, which owned 66 mainly medieval monasteries, dozens of churches and other real estate there, insisted the state wanted to impound its assets, while Pro-Western Montenegro's president Milo Đukanović, accused the Serbian church of promoting pro-Serb policies that are aimed at "undermining Montenegrin statehood".
Montenegro Pride is the national LGBTIQ pride march in the city of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, which first took place for the first time in 2013. Since then Montenegro Pride has become an annual event. It is self-identified as an LGBTIQ pride rally.
In April 2021, a wave of protests, dubbed by its organizers as the Montenegrin Spring, or the Montenegrin Response or Montenegrin Answer, was launched in Montenegro against the announced adoption of regulations that will make it easier to acquire Montenegrin citizenship, but also take away the citizenship of some Montenegrin emigrants, which the protesters consider as an "attempt of the government to change the ethnic structure of Montenegro" and against the Krivokapić Cabinet, which the protesters accuse of being "treacherous" and the "satellite of Serbia".
A series of violent protests against the enthronement of Joanikije Mićović of the Serbian Orthodox Church as the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral took place at the historic Cetinje Monastery in September 2021.
On 12 August 2022, a spree shooting occurred in Cetinje, Montenegro. Ten people were killed, including two children, and six others were wounded. The gunman, identified as 33-year-old Vučko Borilović, was shot and killed after engaging in a gun battle with police officers. It is the deadliest shooting in Montenegro since the 1944 Cetinje massacre.
