Student revolt, BIRN: Police lost control of the territory and showed a lack of professionalism

Security experts and former senior police officials believe that the State Police responded contradictorily to the student revolt, shifting from the disproportionate use of force to withdrawing from the scene in the face of acts of vandalism in Tirana.

Meanwhile, State Police Director General Skënder Hita defended the police operation, insisting that in situations like these there is no “golden mean.”

The escalation of student and civic protests for the third consecutive day in Tirana and their spread to several other cities across the country, accompanied by violent physical clashes, the widespread use of tear gas and high-pressure water, as well as attacks, arson and looting targeting public institutions and private businesses, has raised questions about the State Police’s ability to manage the situation.

Security experts, researchers and former senior police officials believe that the response of the blue uniforms has exposed serious operational shortcomings, shifting from individual violence outside established protocols to withdrawing and leaving the capital’s center without control during the second night, and then to aggressively pursuing protesters with tear gas in residential areas on the third day.

Meanwhile, current officials insist that the structures are acting within the law in the face of extreme aggression.

“The behavior of the State Police is strange. I cannot say whether they have orders or not, but the way the situation is being managed is problematic,” said Gledis Nano, a security expert and former Director General of the State Police.

On the other hand, State Police Director General Skënder Hita defended the actions of his subordinates in a telephone conversation with BIRN, stating that standard procedures were being followed and that “there is no golden mean in these situations.” Meanwhile, at a press conference, he warned that the police would not withdraw.

“Do not confuse the State Police’s restraint with weakness,” he said.

The 72-hour toll of the revolt

The wave of protests that has swept the country since Tuesday came after more than four months of uninterrupted peaceful gatherings calling for the government’s departure, known as the “Flamingo Revolution,” initially sparked in late May by opposition to tourism projects in Zvërnec.

This week, however, the protest turned into a mass revolt by university and high school students over education conditions, the unaffordable cost of living and the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government. The protest escalated into violence on Tuesday afternoon, and from that moment, clashes between protesters and police continued until after midnight.

On Thursday, the third day of the protest, it spread beyond Tirana after university and high school students boycotted classes and clashed with police in Shkodër, Durrës, Elbasan, Korçë, Vlorë, Kamëz and Krujë. The Assembly of Albania also canceled its plenary session.

In the capital alone, the three-day toll of clashes included high numbers of injuries, damage and arrests. On Tuesday, the protest outside the Ministry of Education ended with 23 people taken to the police station, 16 of whom were arrested, while criminal proceedings were initiated against 49 others. Six police officers, one journalist and at least 13 citizens who sought medical assistance were injured during the protest.

On Wednesday, October 14, clashes spread throughout the city, as masked protesters attacked state institutions with stones, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails, damaged bank branches and private businesses, and attacked Police Station No. 2, where they burned a police vehicle and damaged three other vehicles.

Regarding Wednesday’s events, police announced that 55 citizens, including two minors, had been arrested in flagrante delicto and that criminal proceedings had been initiated against 98 others, including people accused of robbing banks and savings banks.

In a press statement on Thursday afternoon, State Police Director General Skënder Hita announced that during the 72 hours of tensions, the number of injured police officers had reached 71, some of them seriously injured. The Ministry of Health, which initially reported the number of injured people, including protesters, did not issue further announcements in the following days.

Criticism of the police

The way the police responded during these three days, which was also criticized by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, media organizations and Western diplomatic missions that condemned both the violence against property and the disproportionate actions of the police, is viewed skeptically by the institution’s former senior officials and security researchers.

For former Police Director General Gledis Nano, the violence, particularly its escalation through attacks on private businesses, is entirely unacceptable. However, he stressed that the State Police had the opportunity to stop this deterioration, and it remains unclear why action was not taken in time.

According to Nano, the police cannot be caught off guard by protesters’ movements because, in addition to the Rapid Intervention Forces, FNSH, they have operational information and know in advance what may happen at a protest of this kind.

He recalled that clear legal protocols exist for the police to follow, from verbal warnings to the use of water and tear gas, as well as regulated procedures governing how officers move in the field. He added that although the police do not move as quickly as protesters, they have no reason to pursue them chaotically.

“This business of police officers breaking away from the cordon and hitting protesters with rubber batons until they fall to the ground is unprofessional,” Nano said, adding that he did not believe officers had been ordered to carry out such actions, but viewed them as a “lack of training and professionalism among those officers.”

“The State Police have the ability to stop the escalation of violence. I cannot say what the reasons are for not having acted,” he said, describing the way they acted as “strange and incomprehensible.”

While the first day brought accusations of disproportionate use of force and tear gas in urban areas inhabited by residents and children, Wednesday night highlighted the opposite: a total lack of control over the territory as ministries, banks, businesses and Police Station No. 2 were attacked.

Another former police and FNSH commander, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the situation could have been managed and contained, but the police’s failure to intervene at certain moments “left much to be desired,” as on Wednesday the station police were not present on the streets until after midnight.

“The police had no control over the territory at all; I am not saying across the entire city, but in what is known as the Small Ring Road,” said the former FNSH commander.

He explained that the FNSH was not the only unit with assigned duties, but that station police should also have been deployed and present on the streets, especially after the protest dispersed, when most of the vandalism and break-ins occurred and when they should have been able to intervene and stop them, either through their presence or through pressure.

For Romario Shehu, a researcher with the Security Program at the Institute for Democracy and Mediation, IDM, fluctuations in police conduct during these protests are closely linked to the institution’s internal structural problems and the longstanding public perception that the police in Albania function as an “extension of executive power,” which has damaged their legitimacy, public trust and performance.

According to him, officers are currently facing unfairness in the rank system, a lack of meritocracy, insufficient psychosocial support and long working hours, factors that directly affect how they manage tense situations.

“Long hours on duty, fatigue, psychological pressure and the continuous physical attacks they endure can affect officers’ self-control and push them beyond the permitted limits,” Shehu said, stressing that although the current protests in Tirana and beyond reflect this dynamic, “the disproportionate use of police violence cannot be justified.”

He added that escalating situations never serves the police, so calm, communication and self-control must be part of police professionalism even when the other side is violent.

Nevertheless, Shehu views the current confrontation between young people and the police as a symptom of a much more serious social and institutional crisis, in which a disturbing normalization of violence and resentment toward institutions can be observed.

“It is painful to see videos in which police officers abuse young people, but it is equally unacceptable to see minors assaulting police officers,” Shehu said. “When the police and young people end up in this hostile relationship, we have a problem that is much deeper than a protest. We have a problem of trust, authority and how we are building the relationship between the state and its citizens,” he said.

But the current head of the State Police, Skënder Hita, denied that the police had taken different approaches or suffered shortcomings in their operational plan during the three days, insisting that all commanders had been “up to the task,” that the police “are not the property of any political party,” and that the use of tear gas was unavoidable in the face of “a river of volleys of stones.”

“No one saw how many stones the police endured on the first day, and everyone complained only about the police’s use of force. On the second day, they complained that the police were less active,” Hita said./BIRN