FLASH
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During the dictatorship, members of the Police Volunteer Cooperation Group monitored streets, neighborhoods, businesses, schools, universities, trains, hotels, holidays, elections, and football matches day and night, and those who monitored reported to security operatives...
Following the appointment of Ervin Hoxha as Minister of Interior and Ilir Proda as Director of the State Police, the situation of public order and security in Albania has entered an alarming phase. The police have lost control over the territory and are unable to cope with crime, both in cities and rural areas. Furthermore, at certain levels of police leadership there is a clear involvement in criminal networks.
In an attempt to mask this total failure and create a false facade of commitment to security, Prime Minister Edi Rama has undertaken an unprecedented act: the restoration of a structure similar to the Voluntary Cooperation Groups (AGBV) of the dictatorship era. With the government decision of May 28, 2025, the establishment of an organization of "volunteer police" in the community was approved, who will function as assistants to the State Police.
This decision constitutes a complete revival of the practices of the Kadri Hazbiu regime and the State Security. Volunteer police officers will have the right to patrol neighborhoods, public transportation, stadiums, beaches, airports, terminals, and educational institutions, as well as to "collect information of interest to the police," without any clear legal or ethical criteria.
The decision stipulates that volunteer police officers can work up to 25 hours a week, but does not specify whether they will be paid, leaving open the possibility that they will be used as informal workers – or as legalized government patrons.
According to the official document, they will track down suspected individuals and collect data on "threats to order and security", while the State Police itself continues to be dysfunctional in the fight against organized crime. In practice, this network of volunteer police is nothing more than an interception structure spread throughout the territory, in function of social control and information gathering for political purposes.
This is not the first time that Edi Rama has experimented with such models. In 2019, he had approved a similar decision to recruit a narrow group of experienced spies. Now, the scale is much larger and includes all of Albania. According to information provided by sources within the government, the aim is to recruit at least 6,000 "volunteer police" who will function as the "eyes, ears and mouth" of the state in every community.
This action is a clear signal that the government has lost the real support of state structures and has been forced to return to primitive forms of political and social control. The decision constitutes a dangerous intrusion into the private lives of citizens and reopens the wounds of a dark history of the totalitarian state./ Pamphlet
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