THE ALBANIAN PUBLIC'S TRUST IN SECURITY: STUMBLING BLOCKS TO EU NEGOTIATIONS corruption of high ranking officials or any other provision of Article 75/a of the Code of Criminal Procedures. Also, the State Police is obligated to execute decisions taken by SPO, as well as facilitating any case in which these structures deem it necessary to attach their investigators within the structures of the State Police for certain cases or duration of time. Furthermore, regarding the"Force of the Law" operation, an anti-organized crime operation focused on asking people with criminal records to justify their wealth, police have consistently relied on SPO for its seizing of criminal assets, therefore adding another avenue of control and oversight of the work of the State Police from an independent institution. 21 3. Control and Oversight of the Intelligence Service This section analyses the institutional oversight and control exerted over the Intelligence Service by the Executive, Parliament as well as the independent bodies and the institutions created by the justice reform. 3.1. Background The Intelligence Service has been one of the most important and problematic elements in the process of the democratization of the security institutions of Albania. Coming from a period when it was used as a political weapon, the Intelligence Service was remade entirely after the fall of communism. However, the oversight of the Intelligence Services institutionally and properly has been problematic. Politicization has been a great problem since the early years of the newly established Intelligence Service. Nevertheless, the institutional control and oversight exercised over these institutions by the current laws in power could be analyzed for their potential as a platform for further reform and democratization. If we were to analyze the public's perception of the intelligence services, we find that the SIS enjoys a rather enigmatic position. In the Albanian Security Barometer, when asked about their perception of the SIS, a considerable 12.9 percent of surveyed citizens admitted that they did not know enough about the intelligence services to make an informed judgment. Such a large number of citizens with no opinion on such an important institution shows that there is a problem regarding public outreach relating to the workings of the SIS. 21 State Police publication on cases being relayed to SPO for evaluation: https://www.asp.gov.al/7-shkurt-ofl/ 29