Ministry of Internal Affairs of Albania

Interior Minister Besfort Lamallari said, in a statement on the Ministry of Internal Affairs website, that the Smart City Command and Control Centre "is being established and operating from today", using artificial intelligence that analyses data in real time, identifies "potentially hazardous behavior or breach of the law" and sends an alert to "the closest patrol unit in the field". The ministry's page is undated; Shqiptarja published the minister's statement on 16 July 2026. The ministry says the centre draws on data from 873 operating locations across 12 local police directorates, 24 major cities, 28 border crossing points and 20 schools in Tirana, and that an initial phase begins with the 20 most-attended Tirana schools. A second, also undated, ministry page reports Prime Minister Edi Rama as saying the system identifies dangerous objects, tracks vehicles involved in criminal activities, locates wanted persons and monitors violations, and that he aims for it to operate across Albania within 12 months; it says the system will increase the effectiveness of the State Police and that a body-camera link is under development. Neither page mentions facial recognition. On 12 September 2026 the State Police Director General, Skënder Hita, said intelligent cameras had been installed in 20 schools under the project (Balkanweb). Presight said in a release dated 22 December 2025 that it had signed a multi-year contract with the ministry for an AI smart city platform covering 20 cities and 28 international border points; Alfapress reported on 9 February 2026 that the agreement is classified, that the planned equipment includes 2,239 ANPR cameras, 2,602 PTZ cameras and 3,816 police body cameras at a cost of up to $140 million, and that the People's Advocate would examine the project only on concrete complaints. The sources show the centre and its first phase in operation; most of the planned equipment is not yet shown installed.