Certain aspects of provoding use of police units in actions of protection and rescuing in case of natural disasters

Abstract

Police officers represent significant and very respectable force of the system for protection and rescue of people, material and cultural values from consequences caused by natural disasters. Effectiveness and efficiency of police forces depend on various factors, such as degree of abruptness, type, scale, intensity, phase and consequences of natural disaster, quality of training and equipping police officers, availability of response action plans and stable financial resources. However, experiences of the police in protection and rescue actions during the floods in May 2014, led to importance of exploring visibly present but not sufficiently explained theoretical aspects of the use of police units during natural disasters of catastrophic proportions. Regarding this, the paper elaborates the issues concerning organization and functioning of telecommunications and geo topographic ensuring use of police units in actions of protection and rescue during catastrophic floods on examples from Obrenovac and Šabac. At the end of the paper, the concrete suggestions for improving the treated issues are given.