Development of Policing in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Policing in Central and Eastern Europe has changed dramatically in the 20th century. Transformation of police organizations from the militarized structures that supported the operation of once totalitarian political systems into a democratic, civil and community oriented police was evaluated. In the last decade and a half, trends of harmonization of police activity at the level of Europe as a whole and the processes of seeking legitimacy of public police forces in competition with other institutions of increasingly pluralistic family of institutions providing security in contemporary society has been observed. Policing is becoming a more knowledge-based social control activity, not only in the West (e.g. in UK or in the USA), but also in the Central and Eastern Europe. Academization of police work, which is reflected in the research and in strengthened educational standards for policing (including the beginnings of police science), is fundamentally changing the nature of policing and for the first time in history, is comparable to other developed professions.