The Bosnian Police and Police Integrity

Abstract

The international community has invested considerable resources in reforming the police in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). This paper develops a typology of integrity problems in the BiH and measures the level of integrity among the police in the Sarajevo canton. The typology consists of six forms of police misconduct; it suggests the presence of serious and pervasive integrity problems. In 2003, 451 police officers evaluated nine scenarios describing police corruption and one describing the use of excessive force. Police officers’ evaluations of the seriousness of the police misconduct illustrated by these scenarios were directly related to their opinions about appropriate discipline. The results also indicate that the code of silence provides stronger protection for the acceptance of gratuities and use of excessive force than for opportunistic thefts and shakedowns.