High Court of Albania has reviewed the decision for obtaining police ranks and has ruled Monday that those aiming at getting the ranks from the level of "Deputy Commissioner" to the level of "First Officer", must necessarily be subjected to the competitive evaluation procedure.

In its decision, the Court decided that meeting the formal criteria for obtaining the rank, such as seniority in the previous rank and effective exercise of the cannot be achieved if the employees of the State Police do not undergo to a competitive evaluation process by the promotion commission first.

“The Supreme Court considers important the coherence in the judicial practice, as well as the correct and uniform interpretation of the law by all the factual courts of the Republic of Albania. Following the publication of the decision-making of the panels of the High Court, in support of law enforcement and public opinion, the Administrative College of this court announces that on 15.07.2021, considered in a court session the administrative case no. 31003-01562 -00-2018 Basic Register, which marks the first unifying decision of this College in the field of administrative law.

At the end of this trial, the Administrative College of the High Court concluded in the unifying sentence:

The process of obtaining police ranks from the level of 'Deputy Commissioner' to the level of 'First Officer', must necessarily be subject to the competitive evaluation procedure, according to the provisions of articles 50-60 of law no. 108/2014 'On the State Police'.

Fulfillment of formal criteria for obtaining the rank, such as seniority in the previous rank and / or effective exercise of the function in accordance with the claimed rank, cannot lead to the judicial acquisition of the police rank, without first subjecting the State Police employees to a process competitive evaluation by the grading commission”, as quoted from High Court’s decision.