Kosovo Police Service
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The Kosovo Police Service (KPS; Albanian: Sherbimi Policor i Kosovës; Serbian: Kosovska Policijska Služba) was created in 1999, in the aftermath of the NATO bombing campaign and subsequent withdrawal of the Yugoslav and Serbian forces from Kosovo. Slobodan Milošević had previously purged most Albanians from the police in Kosovo, thus, when Serbian forces withdrew, there were no longer any police officers to maintain public order in Kosovo. The establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) included a large international policing component, named the UNMIK Police. They were given two primary tasks by UN Security Council Resolution 1244: 1) to establish a new police force; 2) in the meantime, to maintain civil law and order.
The name for the new police force "Kosovo Police Service," was chosen by the first international police commissioner, Sven Frederiksen. Recruitment began immediately, and a former police school premise in the city of Vučitrn was renovated by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which began to train cadets.
To this day, the force remains subordinated to the UNMIK Police, and the police commissioner retains command authority over both the international police and the KPS. The KPS has grown steadily since 1999, and in 2004 reached its planned full size of nearly 7,000 officers. About 85% of KPS officers are ethnic Albanians, 15% are ethnic Serbs as well as other smaller ethnic minorities.
