Community policing in Serbia: between tradition and contemporary challenges

Abstract

Purpose: Over the few last decades, special attention of experts, researchers and practitioners in Serbia dealing with the model of community policing, has been paid to the strategy of locally-based policing as a qualitatively new system of police organization and functions based on relationship between citizen expectations and what police are really doing. A theoretical analysis of conceptual and methodological considerations of community policing, as well as an empirical research based on principles of community policing are the main topic of this paper. Methods: Responses of mid-ranking police officers and patrol and beat officers were used as a source of information in order to evaluate the implementation of community policing in the context of domestic violence, i.e. to analyse police officers' attitudes towards community policing. Altogether 80 police officers were surveyed. Findings: The analysis of police officers' attitudes towards community policing in local communities shows that the most frequently mentioned obstacles to its implementation are structural changes and traditional police subculture. Furthermore, absence of intergovernmental cooperation between police agencies and nonprofessional attitude towards citizens (inclination to corruption and abuse of discretionary powers in decision making) were seen as limiting factors. Research limitations: The main obstacle regarding the study refers to the unequal sample regarding gender distribution. Nevertheless, the sample characteristics are in accordance with the analysed population. Originality: After considering the research results and analysing foreign theoretical and practical experience, general recommendations have been made to improve the theory and practice in community policing implementation and to enhance its performance in local communities.