The Acting President of the Republic of Kosovo, Albulena Haxhiu, participated today at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Kosovo Police Inspectorate.
In her address to the participants, Acting President Haxhiu said that for two decades, the Kosovo Police Inspectorate has carried out a great deal of work, which receives little public attention, but without which trust in the police would be more fragile.
“The Kosovo Police Inspectorate was established with a mission that is never easy: to ensure that those who protect citizens remain within the law. One of the most difficult tasks that a democratic state can build on its own. Because it is easy to demand responsibility from others, but it is much more difficult for the state to set the same standard on its own institutions”, emphasized Acting President Haxhiu.
According to her, for twenty years in a row, this Inspectorate has maintained that clear view, has carried out its work responsibly and with the conviction that accountability does not weaken the police, but strengthens it.
“With the conviction that transparency does not violate the authority of the uniform, but makes it credible. And that a police officer supervised with integrity is a police officer that the citizen feels is his. Therefore, trust in the Kosovo Police has grown over the years”, said Acting President Haxhiu.
She further said that today I want to focus, first of all, on the people who maintain this institution.
“To all the officers of the generation, but especially those of the first generation, who started this traversing when there was still no example to follow. They did not inherit a ready-made institution but built it themselves, with dedication, patience and the difficult burden that those who are the first always bear. They worked in silence and held high a simple and great idea at the same time: that the Kosovo Police belongs to its citizens, and that every uniform carries the trust of the citizens”, emphasized Acting President Haxhiu.
Acting President Haxhiu further added that we also share this day with the partner institutions and agencies that stood by the Inspectorate since its beginnings, because according to her, no sustainable institution is built on its own, it is built with cooperation, support and a common will towards democratic standards.
Acting President Haxhiu said that the trust of citizens is earned every day, in each response that this inspectorate gives to a citizen seeking justice, and our citizens have understood this.
“It was mentioned and we saw that during 2025, 2,539 citizens addressed the Kosovo Police Inspectorate, about 500 more than in during the previous year. This increase is evidence of a growing trust. It is a sign that citizens are seeing the Inspectorate as an address where they can go, where they can be heard and where their concerns are treated with the highest institutional seriousness. Among the citizens who have addressed this institution over the years, there have also been communities that are not the majority in Kosovo, Serbs, Turks, Bosniaks, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians. This door does not ask who you are or what language you speak. It only asks whether your right has been violated. And when the answer is yes, then the door opens for everyone equally”, emphasized Acting President Haxhiu.
According to her, this is the deepest meaning of equality before the law, and it is precisely this meaning that the Kosovo Police Inspectorate has defended in each of these twenty years.
“Twenty years of the Police Inspectorate cannot be separated from our journey as a state. So, every institution that we have responsibly established, every standard that we have set for ourselves, has brought us closer to the state that we have always dreamed of: a state where the law applies equally to all. The independence, transparency and accountability of this Inspectorate are measures of our democratic maturity and an inseparable part of our European journey”, said Acting President Haxhiu.
She further said that the institutions of the Republic must continue to stand by this institution: by protecting its independence, by strengthening the professionalism of its people and by maintaining public trust as the foundation of its work.
According to her, the coming years require even more independence for the Inspectorate, more investigative capacities and more trust earned through concrete work.
Finally, Acting President Haxhiu thanked the Inspectorate for twenty years of honest work in a task that rarely brings gratitude, but always requires very strong character.
“I thank you for maintaining calm when decisiveness was needed, and decisiveness when justice was demanded. Thanks to your work, the citizen knows that behind every uniform stands a law, and behind every law there must be someone who ensures that it is respected. I heartily congratulate you on this anniversary! May the next twenty years be even stronger evidence of the same conviction that united you from the beginning: that a state becomes strong only when it has the courage to be fair to itself”, said Acting President Haxhiu.
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