The III-rd scientific conference “Challenges of public safety institutions functioning under circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic” was held

Vushtrri, January 29, 2021 – At Kosovo Academy for Public Safety (KAPS), was held the third international scientific conference “Challenges of public safety institutions functioning under circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic”, organized by the Faculty of Public Safety at the Academy. All participants have presented the models used by the countries they come from, to prevent the spread of the COVID 19 virus.  In this conference also were presented the difficulties that security institutions have had and still have during the pandemic period.

The Dean of the Faculty of Public Safety Mr. Bejtush Gashi, by thanking the participants in this conference, said that holding this conference is very important to debate about the challenges   that public security institutions faced in this time of pandemic.
 
“The main subject in this conference are ‘Challenges of public safety institutions functioning under circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic”, by combining areas of special importance seeing models of functioning of public safety institutions, educational and training of different countries in  pandemic circumstances, but also the past or current experiences or challenges in the circumstances of the COVID 19 global pandemic”, said the Dean Gashi,  he also continued that the COVID 19 pandemic has created challenging situation in all areas, according to him especially in the field of public safety.

“Currently the countries faced stagnation or even damages of a number of processes, because has been caused a lot of economic, social and political damages. State borders are almost closed, economies are stagnant, a state of emergency is in all countries, citizens are still in isolation and the pandemic is still a deadly threat to people," said Mr. Gashi.

In addition to other problems related to the challenges that security institutions have had during this pandemic, Dean Gashi also spoke about the development of technology which he considered as one of the most important issues in this period of isolation.

"The impact of all these above developments and the COVID 19 pandemic have given a new direction to higher education as well, where the imposed online method of lecturing has proven to be extremely challenging and for a short time of its application leaves much  to be desired ", said Mr. Gashi. The Dean Gashi assessed that the conclusions drawn from this conference will be a valuable contribution to public safety institutions and other institutions in preventing and overcoming the challenges of this pandemic.

The participants of the third international scientific conference were greeted by the director of the Department of Finance and General Services Mr. Rrahim Rexha. Mr. Rexha highly assessed that holding such a conference in this pandemic situation is very important for the security institutions.
Mr. Rexha said that during this conference we will learn new models of how other countries eliminate challenges to prevent the spread of COVID 19. While he said that the Academy will always provide support to public safety institutions in the country.


The conference was held in three scientific sessions in which researchers from Kosovo, the United States of America, Germany, Hungary, etc. participated, where they presented their works which managed to successfully fulfill the goals of this conference.

In this online-conference the participants were; Mr. Bejtush GASHI, the Dean of the Faculty of Public Safety at KAPS, Mr. Rrahim Rexha director of the Department OF Finance and General Services, Mr. Bilbil Mema Director of the Security Academy in Albania, Mr.Peter Ruzsonyi the Dean of the Faculty of Law Enforcement, University of Public Service, Hungary, Mr. Nikola Dujovski, the Dean of the Faculty of Security in Skopje, University “St. Kliment Ohridski” Bitola, North Macedonia, Mr. John Fisher  Chair, Emergency Services Department, Utah Valley University, United States of America, Mr.  Bjorn Tore Saltvik from the Department for Strategic Police Affairs at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, Mr. Edward Anderson, Director of the Department for Public Order and Security at the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Mr. Carsten Twelmeier, Head of International Cooperation at the German Police University, and representatives from public security institutions in Kosovo.