Factors of the readiness of local communities to cooperate with the police in Slovenia

Abstract

In the theoretical part of the paper, the authors deal with local self-government in general and its organisation, status and tasks in the Republic of Slovenia. After considering the police in general terms, they present its organisation and work in the Republic of Slovenia and its connection with local communities. The theoretical part of the paper is concluded by an overview of cooperation between the police and local communities and by stressing the importance of this cooperation as an important criterion for the evaluation of police effectiveness.

The empirical part of the paper presents an analysis, carried out on a sample of 42 municipalities, or 520 mayors and city council members, which studied factors that have an impact on the willingness of mayors and city council members to cooperate with the police. The most important findings of the study are: mayors and city council members are willing to cooperate with police officers; the factors that have the most impact on their willingness to cooperate with the police are their opinion of the cooperation of the police with the public, the effectiveness of police work, interpersonal competencies of police officers and a feeling of safety in the local community.