The Rapid Deployment Unit has turned 25. The anniversary was marked in Bitola, in front of the Officers' Hall, with a tactical demonstration drill, an exhibition of specialised equipment and a round of awards.

The unit was formed in 2001 - a year that anyone who remembers it, remembers for a reason. Since then its members have been deployed in complex police operations, protection of people and buildings, support for other units, and situations involving major breaches of public order.

Interior Minister Pance Toskovski called the unit "one of the pillars of the security system".

"When a situation demands a fast response, a high level of readiness, discipline, coordination and professionalism, the members of this unit are there where they are needed most," Toskovski said.

The sentence that needs a continuation

Toskovski also said something more concrete: today's security challenges are significantly different from those of two decades ago. Organised crime is becoming more sophisticated and more mobile, which requires modern technology, specialised equipment, better coordination and highly trained staff.

Hard to argue with that. But the sentence has a second half that was not spoken at the ceremony: how much of that modern technology has been procured, out of which budget, and how many officers have actually completed specialist training in the last five years. A tactical demonstration drill shows capability. It does not show equipment.

Certificates and plaques were handed out at the ceremony. Dragan Atanasov was named the unit's best officer of the past year. A plaque also went to Bitola mayor Toni Konjanovski, presented by Aleksandar Janev, director of the Public Security Bureau. Risto Stavrevski, Gjorgji Bozinov and Vasko Naumovski also received awards.

In total, 33 officers were awarded plaques for 25 years of service in the unit. That is the figure that says the most - thirty-three people who stayed in the same place for a quarter of a century, in a profession people usually leave.