Author: Klevis Paloka
Mhill Gjoka, a resident of Borizane village, never leaves the house alone. Just like him, hundreds of Albanians act, mostly elderly people who have turned into house guards because of the fear of thieves. "We are just two old men at home, since our boys are outside, but like us there are many other people, our fear is that next time they will enter our house and tie us up, as I heard on TV that they did in other countries others. We are afraid to stay in our house", says the 78-year-old for Sinjalizo.
But despite the measures taken to secure the house and property, the thieves entered Mhill Gjoka's apartment and took what they wanted from there. It was impossible to keep the house awake at night.
"When we woke up in the morning, we found the warehouse destroyed and all our materials stolen, from the lawnmower to the keg of brandy", Gjoka counts the stolen items. In a state of uncertainty for life, just like the residents of rural areas who are vigilant against thieves, the 78-year-old is one of five elderly couples in Albania who live alone and who have unwanted visits from robbers - unofficially tells "Sinjalizo" a police officer.
Many of them do not report and it is about the theft of livestock, poultry, or seasonal products, as Fehti Braza from Tirana says, who did not go to the police. "I roasted the brandy in Laprakë and in the morning they emptied it, took the cauldron and 15 liters of alcohol that I extracted from the purchased grapes. Why did I report him?” asks the old man, who is convinced that the act was carried out by a young man who needs money.
Every day two houses
Official police data show that despite the skepticism of not reporting the theft of cattle, bees and household furniture, during 2021 robbers broke into 744 families throughout Albania. So last year, every day it was reported that an average of 2 apartments were stolen per day.
While in total for criminal offenses against property for the year 2021, 4112 criminal offenses have occurred, including bank robbery, armed robbery, violent robbery, residential theft, local commercial theft, vehicle theft. From the calculations made by "Sinjalizo", it appears that, on average, 11 criminal offenses against property per day have occurred throughout Albania.
Also, from the official statistics of the State Police that were made available to Sinjalizo, it results that only 2415 of these criminal offenses have been detected, or 58.7% of them, while 1697 criminal offenses or 41.3% of them remained undetected. While from last year's criminal offenses, in the first 4 months of 2022, only 135 old thefts were discovered.
The ranking for the commission of criminal offenses is headed by other criminal offenses, where out of 2580 criminal offenses, 1631 of them or 67% have been detected, while 949 undetected criminal offenses or 33% of them have remained undetected.
Then the criminal offense of residential theft is listed, where a total of 744 criminal offenses occurred, where only 327 of them were detected or 44% of them, while 417 criminal offenses were not detected or 56% of them.
In third place is local commercial theft, where 484 occurred and 309 or 63.8% of them were detected, while 175 criminal offenses or 36.2% of them remained undetected.
Theft of vehicles is ranked fourth, with a total of 207 cases, of which 71 or 34% were detected, while 3 criminal offenses or 136% remain undetected.
The criminal offense of vehicle theft is listed as a criminal offense where the blue forces have not had a high yield in discovering the perpetrators of these thefts.
As far as the age group of the implicated perpetrators is concerned, it turns out that about 35% belong to the age group of 25-40 years, 41.3% to the age of 18-25 years, minors occupy 8.2% and 16% of different ages. As for the elements, they are drug users, teenagers and minors with social problems.
A total of 3349 perpetrators were implicated, of which 1308 were arrested/detained, 1395 were pursued at large and 646 fled the scene.
As for the crime report from the General Prosecutor's Office for 2021, it results that the highest number of proceedings registered for property theft groups is in the prosecutor's offices near the court of first instance, such as: Tirana recorded 43% of the total number of proceedings registered for these offenses on a national scale, Durrës registered 12% of the total number of registered proceedings, Vlorë registered 7% of the total number of registered proceedings, Elbasan 5% of the total number of registered proceedings, etc. according to the graphic presentation, while it is observed that the smallest number of registered proceedings for these groups of criminal offenses is in the prosecution offices near the courts of first instance, such as: Dibër , Tropojë, Kukës, Krujë recorded respectively about 1% of the total number of proceedings at the country level and Mat, Pukë, Përmet, Pogradec recorded less than 1% of the total number of proceedings registered nationwide for the year 2021, for criminal offenses of property theft.
"In the analysis of the data, it results that the profile of the defendants is 94.04% men, of which 12.84% are minors, 69.4% have up to 9-year education, 81.78% are unemployed, 6.3% of them are repeat offenders for the same crime criminal, while 12.8% of the defendants are repeat offenders for various criminal offenses. The highest number of proceedings for the theft of property was registered in the first instance prosecutor's office in Tirana, 43% of them, while the highest coefficient per 100,000 thousand inhabitants results in Tirana district with 386 proceedings, Vlora district with 385 proceedings and Durrës district with 344 proceedings", it is stated in the annual report of the General Prosecutor's Office.
Police: We have designated the risk areas
Asked about the measures taken by the State Police in relation to these criminal acts, Josif Shtëmbari, head of the sector against crimes against property, says that annual analyzes have been made for these criminal acts and the risk areas have been determined.
"Currently, during the month of January of this year, the annual analyzes have been carried out and priority tasks related to taking measures in the first place in the preventive war have been determined, analyzing theft situations, trends (businesses, commercial premises, cars or apartments) in every territory in cities and residential centers, defining the risk areas and deploying reinforced police Services at those times when the possibility of committing such criminal acts is greater", Shtembari declares for "Signalizo".
Also, the officer against property crimes emphasizes that the strategy of cooperation is being followed in order to reduce the number of these crimes.
"Cooperation with the community, with the structures of local government and the prosecutor of the judicial districts has been strengthened, in the direction of preventing this criminality, giving priority to the strict control of socially dangerous persons who have been convicted in our country or in the country different EU countries for theft or other crimes of this nature. Cooperation with the police structures of other countries has increased, exchanging mutual information through INTERPOL and Europol on persons who have criminal records in the countries where they immigrated and currently we have had results and some of the serious property crimes have been discovered", the police officer explains to "Sinjalizo".
Lots of measures, but even more thieves
But even though, according to the head of the sector against property crimes, measures have been taken, the statistics of the first three months of 2022 show that there is almost the same trend as in 2021 for property crimes. Only for the period January-March 2022, a total of 885 criminal offenses or an average of 10 thefts per day occurred, of which 556 were detected or 63.95% of them, while 329 criminal offenses were undetected or 36.05% of them.
Experts: Home burglary adds to uncertainty
Pëllumb Nako, a teacher of security issues and former head of the police, emphasizes that the theft of an apartment does not affect an individual in the same way as the theft of a car. According to Nako, this increases the feeling of insecurity.
"The burglary of an apartment and the theft of a car in the parking lot do not affect an individual's sense of security in the same way. So having your apartment stolen is more traumatic than your car, regardless of its value. The fact that the police consider a theft with a large monetary value as serious and another with a minimal value may be the reason for the decline in detection. And this is not the right attitude. If someone's new car is stolen, which has a large financial value, it causes the police to mobilize, while the theft of a bicycle can simply be noted and not set on fire by them. Meanwhile, the police do not appreciate in this case the feeling of insecurity that is created in both cases: in the first, although the car has a high value, the victim definitely has the financial resources to buy another one, or to be compensated by insurance. Therefore, this individual is not shocked and is not affected by the feeling of insecurity. But in the case of a bicycle, the victim may be an individual who is economically broke and cannot afford to buy another one or go to work. So the psychological shock that causes the feeling of insecurity in him is quite big, moreover the police do not add water to the fire", says the former head of the police, Nako.
Afraid of the thief!
The security barometer in Albania also expresses the uncertainty about thefts. In a national survey conducted by the Center for the Study of Democracy and Governance, 42.26% of respondents consider theft as the main threat to personal security.
"Thefts, conflicts over property, robberies, murders and organized crime activity are perceived as the main threats to personal security. Compared to the last survey, the activity of organized crime (from 4.66 to 10.23%) and domestic violence (from 1.61 to 3.38%) have an increase of more than double the percentage of the results of 2019", says the Safety Barometer in Albania.
