Community Policing and Local Self Government: Case Study of Serbia

Abstract

The concept of community policing is based on constant consultations between the police and the local self-government and a complex system of preventative responses. A qualitative approach has been applied in a rural community based on the analysis of administrative documents from 2003 to 2011, direct observation and a survey examining the attitudes of 65 police officers who participated directly in the project implementation. The major findings include the existence of a centralized police model and traditional policing, the resistance of low and middle managers to change and the absence of continuous consultations between the police and local self-government.