The State Police has provided details on the deployment of the RENEA special forces during protests in Tirana, stating that it had received a call in its operations room reporting the presence of armed individuals among the protesters.
Albert Nushi, head of the Management Sector in the Public Security Department, said the call received at the Local Police Directorate reported that police were being fired upon with firearms during attacks with pyrotechnic materials against officers.
According to Nushi, the decision to deploy RENEA was taken to protect the lives of officers in the field who, he said, were unarmed.
“To protect the lives of Police employees in the field, who are unarmed, in implementation of the law on assemblies, the RENEA special structures have also gone out into the field, because, based on the call received in the operations room, there was a risk to the lives of Police employees”, Nushi said.
He added that, in parallel with the protests, calls continue in online groups and social networks for the killing of police employees and the burning of their vehicles. According to the Police, these threats, together with the attacks recorded during the protests, led to the adoption of additional security measures.