Admission to the OSCE: 22 June 2006

OSCE Mission to Montenegro: Established on 29 June 2006

Policing overview: Overall political responsibility for policing tasks lies within the Minister of Interior. With regard to practice, the Police Directorate plays the most important role.

1. Functions and missions
2. Staff data
3. Education / Training
4. Oversight

1. Functions and missions
The Police Directorate is the main law enforcement agency in Montenegro. The Director of Police reports annually to the competent Parliamentary committee on the action of the Police.

2. Staff data
The total number of employees is 5209, of which 2473 are uniformed police personnel, with 94 female uniformed police officers.

3. Education / Training
The National Police Academy located in Danilovgrad delivers two kinds of police training:

• Basic police education and training for police staff: for candidates who have completed secondary school education, the training lasts 18 months (12 months of theory, 3 months of “in-field training”, and 3 additional months back at the academy). For candidates with a university degree it lasts 10 months.
• Professional and specialized training for police and other law enforcement agencies staff: The content and duration of those sessions vary depending on the nature of the training.

4. Oversight
The Law on Police provides for both, internal and external control of the Police Directorate’s performance. Internal control is conducted by the special organizational unit within the Police Directorate-Internal Control, which covers the control of the regularity of current police tasks, financial control, counter-intelligence and other controls that are vital for efficacious and legal performance.

As for external control, the Assembly of the Republic of Montenegro, through its competent working body, and Montenegrin citizens, through the Council for Citizens’ Control of the Police’s Performance, are entitled by the Law on Police to perform control over the Police.

1. General information
2. Structure and organization
3. Prosecution

1. General information
The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the judicial administration in the courts.

2. Structure and organization
The Judiciary is organized as follows: basic courts, higher courts, commercial courts, Appellate Court of the Republic of Montenegro, Administrative Court of the Republic of Montenegro, Supreme Court of the Republic of Montenegro.

3. Prosecution
As laid down by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Montenegro, the role of the police in the criminal justice system is basically to initiate and conduct pretrial proceedings. The Code authorizes the police to gather evidence on criminal acts that are prosecuted by law, and, based on evidence gathered, to submit crime reports.

The Criminal Procedure Code and the Law on Police as ‘lex specialis’ specify the jurisdiction and co-operation between the police, public prosecutors and investigative judges.

Furthermore, upon initiation of the criminal procedure, and by the word of investigative judges, the police can take certain investigative measures.