Can you briefly introduce the Security Academy, including its mandate, structure, and the number of cadets and officers trained annually? As Rector, what major reforms and priorities are you focusing on?

The Security Academy is the sole higher education institution in the field of public security in Albania. The main mission of the Security Academy is to develop and transmit knowledge through teaching and scientific research in the field of public order and security, with the aim of continuously enhancing the capacities of the State Police, other law-enforcement structures, and both natural and legal persons.  

The Academy operates under the authority of the State Police. It currently has 906 students and cadets, while its staff is composed of 204 lecturers and specialists from various fields. Interest in studying at the Security Academy is steadily increasing. During the last academic year, 1,614 candidates applied, and after the selection process, 150 students were enrolled in the first year. The data shows that the Security Academy has the highest enrolment quota fulfilment rate in the country at 99.33%, which attests to the strong reputation of its programme.

The educational structures of the Security Academy consist of the Faculty of Security and Investigation and the High Professional College of Police.  

In terms of international co-operation, the Academy enjoys strong and close partnerships with institutions such as the Police Academy in Rome, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre in the USA (FLETC-I), other police academies including Ankara, the Senior Police Academy in Germany, the Commissioners’ School in France and the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Hungary.

Why is it important for police officers to respect principles of equality and non-discrimination in their daily work? From your experience, how do these principles help build trust between law enforcement and the diverse communities they serve?

It is essential for police officers to know how to handle cases with professionalism. Respecting the principles of equality and non-discrimination is not merely a legal obligation — it is the foundation upon which the legitimacy of the entire law enforcement system is built. When citizens trust that the police treats everyone equally, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status, they become active and reliable partners in maintaining public security. When this trust is absent, even the most basic policing tasks - taking statements, identifying perpetrators, and preventing crime - become far more difficult. The topics addressed and the curricula at the Security Academy aim to educate students and cadets to provide the equal security for all members of the community.

How does the Academy train future police officers to recognize and deal with hate speech and hate crimes, particularly when they affect vulnerable groups? How have recent training initiatives, supported by the EU and the Council of Europe, helped strengthen the Academy’s work in this area?

The education and training of cadets and students to identify and address hate speech and hate crimes is based on three key elements: curriculum updates, case-based learning, and approaches to case resolution.

The Academy also provides mandatory annual training for the State Police and other law enforcement structures. Officers attend modules on human rights, community policing, crime prevention, and communication skills. For example, during the Anti-Discrimination Week held in February 2026, and in cooperation with the Council of Europe Office in Tirana, 426 Academy students were trained to identify bias indicators and apply a victim-centred approach. However, this is neither sufficient nor the only measure, as training initiatives often remain limited in scope. This highlights the need to institutionalize and sustain non-discrimination training as a core component of our curriculum, and to mainstream the topic throughout the entire learning process by linking it to human rights violations, risks faced by victims, and the role of law enforcement officers in protecting fundamental rights and freedoms.

An important element of this process is the integration of topics such as gender-based violence, the investigation of hate crimes, the rights of the LGBTIQ community, community policing, and diversity training into both initial and continuous education.

I can emphasise that the contribution of the EU and the Council of Europe, through the Horizontal Facility programme, has been a key driving force. Several achievements can be highlighted:

The Council of Europe manual Policing Hate Crime against LGBTI persons: Training for a Professional Police Response, serves as a strong didactic foundation for teaching staff, essential literature for cadets and students and for continuous professional development of in-service staff. 

 Exchanges in 2024 with the police of Pristina and Kyiv, and in 2025 with those of Chisinau and Skopje, exposed us to regional and broader international experiences.

 Within the framework of the Anti-Discrimination Week, in 2023 and 2025, we collaborated on dedicated training sessions for Security Academy students.

Looking ahead, how have the Council of Europe’s activities influenced the way the Academy integrates non-discrimination and diversity into police training? What steps will the Academy take to ensure these values remain a core part of police education in the future?

The Council of Europe’s activities have profoundly impacted how academic staff address non-discrimination and diversity in the teaching process. Prior to this co-operation, human rights training was ad hoc, materials in the Albanian language were lacking, there were no formal modules on hate crimes, and the Academy was limited in its exposure to European best practices.

Today, the curriculum formally integrates hate crimes as a compulsory module or topic within study programmes and mandatory training for police structures now covers 90% of frontline personnel.

In this context, women in policing have been identified as a strategic recruitment priority, and the Association of Women in the State Police has been established. These initiatives follow the commitment from the Ministry of Internal Affairs leadership that “gender equality is not only a moral principle, but a necessity for improving the quality of police services.”

The success and credibility of the Academy in combating discrimination will be determined by whether these reforms become a genuine and sustainable domestic practice embedded in the institutional identity. Non-discrimination and diversity are not time-bound initiatives; they are fundamental values that must be present in every lesson, every interaction with citizens, and every institutional decision.