A Utah professor is helping write the letter of the law for a European country.
Robert Wadman, director of Weber State University's criminal justice master's degree program, has helped with police organization for Haiti, Nigeria and Poland — and now Albania.
Throughout July, Wadman was in Tirana, Albania, writing draft legislation on how the Albanian Police Service should be organized in support of democracy. His work, once drafted, will be presented to the Albanian National Assembly and, if approved, will become the Albanian Police Law.
"I use my breaks between semesters at WSU to assist with these international policing projects," Wadman said. "When required, my criminal justice department at WSU has been very supportive of my international work."
Wadman has worked part time for the U.S. Department of Justice for about eight years. He is part of a five-member team responsible for writing the Albanian Police Law. The other members are from the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Wadman said working with Albania has been the most interesting of the experiences he has had while working with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Albania became a democracy in 1991, but Wadman said it didn't move forward as quickly as other countries formerly in the Soviet Union. He said it had a strong commitment to communism and a strong dictator for many years.
But the new law he is working on will help support the concepts of a free society.
"In Albania, before the fall of communism, people could not move from one location to another, own an automobile, change professions and so forth without government permission," Wadman said. "These new freedoms bring new and different problems."
Police officers, Wadman said, are going to have to become more community-oriented to support democracy.
"They support democracy and support the added freedoms created by the changes," he said. "At the same time, they have a long history under communism, and the changes are initially difficult for them to understand or comprehend."
But change is necessary for Albania's long-term goal of acceptance into the EU. Albania is still in the process of developing a police force that will meet the demands expected by the EU.
"The new police law is designed to bring the Albania police in line with other democratic police organizations in the EU," Wadman said. "It is not an easy process and it will take several years to accomplish."
Wadman recently took his classroom overseas once more — to Warsaw, Poland, where he is teaching the Polish National Police a course on community policing.
"My teaching experience at WSU has been very useful in the development and the presenting of new ideas to international police forces," he said. "In Poland, I have been involved in the development of curricula that support community policing."
Wadman said curriculum he developed at WSU is a major part of the curriculum for community policing in Poland. He was returning from Poland on Saturday to prepare for the fall semester at WSU.
"It is difficult to identify the best experience," Wadman said of his international work. "The most productive work has been in Poland with the Polish National Police. The most interesting work has been in Albania. The most demanding experience was in Nigeria."
E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com