The barometer shows that 85 percent of respondents don't believe that security institutions treat people equally during the recruitment process. This sentiment is not just for security institutions, but it is shared for all public administration. How many people are employed in security institutions solely on the basis of merit and skills? 80 76.05 72.5 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 A minority 9.06 9.7 None 15.0 10.85 The majority 0.81 1.2 All 3.23 1.6 Don’t know 2019 2020 Graph 3: Perception of merit- and skill-based employment in security institutions. Although the barometer is not designed to identify the causes of unequal treatment of citizens by security institutions, we can infer from barometer data that the main factors that affect attitudes are corruption and the politicization of public institutions. Independence from the political influence of the Prosecution and the Courts 60 53.54 49.51 50 44.0 43.4 40 30 22.3 24.0 20 18.39 18.39 28.1 26.3 21.97 19.19 10 7.09 5.0 8.07 5.3 0 A lot Somewhat Not at all A little 1.79 0.5 2.06 1.0 Don’t know Courts 2019 Courts 2020 Prosecution 2019 Prosecution 2020 Graph 4: Perception of independence of Office of the Prosecutor General and courts from political influence. 13