In November 2015, in his first interview after the accident, given to NIN, Jočić said that the country's authorities have failed to protect him and give him needed help after the accident. He also stated that: "the length and painful way in which I try to accomplish what belongs to me, so that I can live, offends dignity". After being named Interior Minister on 3 March 2004, several newspapers reported that as a 21-year-old Jočić was directly involved in a 1981 kiosk robbery for which he was convicted to a 6-month conditional jail sentence. He confirmed the stories when asked about them. He later stated that this was his "only mischief as a youth" and that "everybody knows that Dragan Jočić is a good man". Both claims became a popular catchphrase among those unsympathetic towards his and his party's policies. In September 2004, Jočić became the target of criticism for allegedly trying to influence Dejan Milenković Bagzi, one of the accused in the Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić murder trial who became a protected witness (svedok saradnik). The accusation of meddling in the trial came after the transcripts of Bagzi's apparent phone call with his attorney Biljana Kajganić were published. In them, attorney Kajganić allegedly tells her client that she got him the protected witness status after talking to Jočić and BIA chief Rade Bulatović, but that in return he (Bagzi) has to "admit to organizing the killing of Momir Gavrilović in 2001 on orders from Ljubiša "Čume" Buha". Jočić strenuously denied the charges that he in any way influenced the trial and added that transcripts were forged. Jočić was blasted again for having a private meeting with the chief suspect for the murder of the Prime Minister Đinđić just minutes after he was arrested. The meeting lasted several hours. Jočić confirmed this, but denied that he broke the law by stating that this was the safest option. He was also accused by some Serbian press outlets of failing to adequately protect the Belgrade's Bajrakli Mosque during riots caused by March 17, 2004 ethnically motivated violence in Kosovo. Jočić reacted by sacking the chief of Belgrade police force even though transcripts of phone calls which they had during the riot clearly proved that he strictly insisted that no force be used against protestors.