Development of Monitoring Instruments for Judicial and Law Enforcement institutions in the Western Balkans 2009-2011 Programme Guidelines Albania With funding by the CARDS Regional Action Programme European Commission June 2010 Disclaimers This Report has not been formally edited. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNODC or contributory organizations and neither do they imply any endorsement. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNODC concerning the legal status of any country, territory or city or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Comments on this report are welcome and can be sent to: Statistics and Survey Section United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime PO Box 500 1400 Vienna Austria Tel: (+43) 1 26060 5475 Fax: (+43) 1 26060 7 5475 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.unodc.org Acknowledgements UNODC would like to thank the European Commission for the financial support provided for the preparation and publication of this report under the CARDS Regional Programme 2006. This report was produced under the responsibility of Statistics and Surveys Section (SASS) and Regional Programme Office for South Eastern Europe (RPOSEE) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) based on research conducted during a research mission to Albania in September 2009 by UNODC and the Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime (TRANSCRIME). Local research and organization of research mission: Ilir Bicja (local focal point) Research coordination and report preparation: TRANSCRIME: Barbara Vettori (research and drafting) Ernesto Savona (research coordination) Irene Pavesi (research assistance) UNODC: Michael Jandl (report editor) Steven Malby (research coordination) Anna Alvazzi del Frate (research coordination) Ela Banaj (local project backstopping) Carla Ciavarella (project management) Angela Me (project management) 2 2 2 2 Programme Guidelines Albania Statistical Guidelines Croatia 1 1. Introduction and Background Albania These programme guidelines have been written within the context of the project ‘Development of monitoring instruments for judicial and law enforcement institutions in the Western Balkans’ funded by the European Union CARDS Regional Action Programme. They provide a set of recommendations for the improvement of statistical systems on crime and criminal justice as well as on migration, asylum and visa in Albania. The guidelines presented here have been drafted on the basis of the Technical Assessment Report for Albania (UNODC, April 2010) and should be read in conjunction with that report. The Technical Assessment Report brings together information gathered during the on-site research mission to Tirana from 28 September to 02 October 2009, which was carried out in close cooperation with the Albanian authorities and counterparts in the field of justice and home affairs (JHA) statistics.1 Like the Technical Assessment Report, the recommendations given here are presented by institution and must be read against the background of the relevant international and EU standards for the collection, analysis and use of JHA statistics. The gradual or step- wise adoption and implementation of the guidelines are a vital step towards bringing existing national statistics mechanisms towards compliance with relevant international and EU acquis, standards and best practices. To assist beneficiary countries and territories in achieving this aim, the project ‘Development of monitoring instruments for judicial and law enforcement institutions in the Western Balkans’ foresees a number of project activities. Tasks that have already been completed include a first desktop research study entitled ‘Background Research on Systems and Context. Justice and Home Affairs Statistics in the Western Balkans’ and a second study entitled ‘Developing standards in crime and criminal justice statistics – International and EU Acquis’ as well as the comprehensive Technical Assessment Reports mentioned above. Further project activities will comprise the development of regional indicators and targeted training and capacity building in the area of data collection and statistics for justice and home affairs institutions. The following guidelines systematically indicate potential areas for improvement, which constitutes a substantial project output in itself. They should furthermore help to prioritize training needs that should be addressed within the project, and to program further technical assistance and training activities that could be addressed by other technical assistance projects as well as to indicate areas for the further development of statistical systems in the medium to long term. 1 The research mission was carried out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in partnership with the Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime (TRANSCRIME) and was supported by a local UNODC focal point in Tirana as well as the UNODC Project Office in Tirana. 3 3 2. Crime and Criminal justice statistics 2.1. Police statistics 2.1.1. Introduction The following guidelines concern mainly police-recorded crime statistics. 2.1.2. Data input (recording of crimes) The assessment identified room for improvement in the statistical recording system at the police level. Many suspected crimes that come to the attention of the police are likely to go unreported in official statistics, either because they are not further pursued or because the prosecutor does not accept them. Current records on suspected offenders and victims are sparse and contain only few details on the profile of the offenders and victims. In the medium term, the electronic recording of unit records through a software linked to the Total Information Management System (TIMS), which is currently in a test phase, has the potential to evolve into a comprehensive system of crime recording and reporting across all police stations in Albania. At the moment recorded crime incidents are assigned a progressive number on a monthly basis in the Crime Registry that is not shared with prosecution and court records. Recommendations: Responsible Institution 1. In order to clearly separate the task of recording crime reports Police from the responsibility to investigate the crimes, the distribution of responsibilities to record crimes within the Albanian State Police could be reviewed and consideration given to shift this task from the Chief of the Sector to a separate crime recording unit in each local police station or primary data collection point. 2. It would be preferable to foresee recording all criminal Police/ offences coming to the attention of the police already at an Department of early stage of the process and irrespective of the identification Data Processing of a suspect. The threshold for recording a criminal offence and Protection and for initiating a person record (‘formal contact’ with the police as a suspect or victim) should be clearly established in written rules. The threshold for offence-based records should be based on the determination that prima facie evidence exists that a crime has occurred. The threshold for suspect-based records should be based on the concept of ‘formal contact’ with the police as a suspect. 3. Person-based records on (suspected) offenders should be Police supplemented by details on sex; ethnicity; citizenship; the offender-victim relationship and the geographical area of residence. 4 4 4 4 4. Options for the systematic recording by the police of details of Police/ victims of crime should also be considered, with a view to Department of collect data on victims disaggregated by age; sex; ethnicity; Data Processing citizenship; offender-victim relationship and geographical area and Protection of residence. 5. Existing guidelines and written rules on the recording of crime Police/ incidents and crime suspects should be reviewed and Department of updated. Updated rules should provide guidelines on a clear Data Processing crime classification scheme based on the Albanian Criminal and Protection Code, which should be used in initial incident recording. Albania 6. The Police Directorate should issue instructions and Police implement training courses to ensure that written rules on data Directorate recording are uniformly applied across all crime recording units in Albania. 7. In co-operation with the Office of the Prosecutor General and Police the Ministry of Justice, the Albanian police should carry out a Office of the feasibility study for the assignment of a unique integrated file Prosecutor number to each person-based record that can be used by all General of the police, prosecution and courts stages of the criminal Ministry of justice system. Justice 2.1.3. Data flow The current system of data transfer from individual record to aggregate statistics at central level functions reasonably well. However, the crime registry format necessitates handling of large volumes of paper and aggregate numbers of crime incidents are copied a number of times between different paper formats. Whilst some instructions from the central to the regional and local levels on data recording and data transmission do exist, it appears that such instructions may not explicitly include details of counting rules regarding offences and suspects. Recommendations: Responsible Institution 8. In the short term, in order to reduce the need for extensive Police manual copying of data between