For the first time in Albania, the OSCE Presence, in close co-operation with Ministry of Interior and Albanian State Police, organized a regional exhibition of police service dogs' capabilities in detection of narcotics and firearms. The event took place in the central "Rinia" park in Tirana, on 7 June 2024, and was open to the public.
This event brought together the Canine Units from Tirana, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Skopje and Pristina, which performed in various disciplines such as obedience, narcotics and firearms detection. Over the two days prior to the demonstration, the Western Balkans teams prepared joint practical exercises at the Albanian State Police Canine Training Institute.
"Given the similar challenges faced by countries of the region, this event serves as a platform for all Western Balkan jurisdictions, experts, and the donor community to exchange knowledge and skills among canine units, benefiting from the OSCE assistance projects. We firmly believe that these interventions will enhance K9 capacities in detecting small arms and light weapons," Head of Presence Ambassador Michel Tarran said at the opening of the event.
Albania's Minister of Interior Taulant Balla said that in the last 300 days, the State Police has conducted a major operation against the phenomenon of illegal possession of weapons and has seized 415 firearms, plus a much larger number of cold weapons. "This shows that we have a large distribution and presence of small and light weapons among citizens, and therefore it is time to unite all forces against this phenomenon which always brings us criminal events with consequences. We have an excellent dialogue with the OSCE, which is focused on increasing capacities to control and reduce the risk of proliferation and misuse of SALWs that pose a serious threat to public security and stability," Balla said.
The exhibition was one of the numerous activities of the project "Assisting the national authorities of the Republic of Albania to decrease the risk of weapon proliferation and misuse of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW)", implemented by the OSCE Presence with the financial support of the European Union, Germany and France. The event was also was organized with the support of the OSCE Secretariat's Forum for Security Co-operation Unit and in co-ordination with OSCE SALW projects implemented in the Western Balkans.
Also in the past, the OSCE's SALW project has been pioneering in organizing regional workshops that serve as platforms to gather representatives from Western Balkans canine units.
