The engagement of citizen volunteers in police activities and crime prevention

Abstract

The engagement of citizen volunteers in police activities and crime prevention represents one of the police methods to improve relations of the police with citizens. Voluntary engagement of citizens in police activities and crime prevention has many advantages. This kind of cooperation with the police offers personal satisfaction to some citizens and contributes to the promotion and strengthening of personal and family reputation. On the other hand, the engagement of citizens in police activities and crime prevention makes morals of the police force members stronger because of frank and immediate support of citizens, reduces costs of overtime work and frees police officers from activities requiring a lot of working hours with poor results. The most frequent techniques used to encourage citizen to cooperate in the police practice are: door-to-door rounds, joint meetings in the community, training of citizens to solve problems in the community and organization of police courses for citizens. Activities and duties of citizens are various: beat and patrol activities in the neighborhood traffic directing, office jobs in police stations, missing people search and pursuit of the perpetrators, assistance to the victims of crimes etc. At the end of this paper, the author specifies the possibilities to engage citizen volunteers in our country.

Angažovanje građana - dobrovoljaca u poslovima policije i prevenciji kriminaliteta predstavlja jedan od metoda policije za poboljšanje odnosa sa građanima. Dobrovoljno angažovanje građana u poslovima policije i prevenciji kriminaliteta pruža brojne pogodnosti. Pojedinim građanima takav način saradnje sa policijom pruža ličnu satisfakciju i doprinosi promociji i jačanju ličnog ugleda i ugleda porodice. Sa druge strane, angažovanje građana u poslovima policije i prevenciji kriminaliteta jača moral pripadnika policije zbog otvorene i neposredne podrške građana, smanjuje troškove za prekovremeni rad i oslobađa policajce poslova koji oduzimaju puno radnog vremena, a daju male rezultate. Najčešće tehnike koje se kori-ste za podsticanje građana na saradnju u praksi policije jesu: obilasci od vrata do vrata, zajednički sastanci u lokalnoj zajednici, obučavanje građana za rešavanje problema u lokalnoj zajednici i organizovanje policijskih kurseva za građane. Poslovi i zadaci koje građani obavljaju raznovrsni su, počev od obavljanja pozorničke i patrolne delatnosti u susedstvu, regulisanja saobraćaja, obavljanja kancelarijskih poslova u policijskim stanicama potrage za nestalim licima i izvršiocima krivičnih dela, pružanja pomoći žrtvama krivičnih dela itd. Na kraju rada navedene su mogućnosti angažovanja građana - dobrovoljaca kod nas.