Do We Trust Them? Public Opinion on Police Work in Plural Policing Environments in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Although there are many studies in the field of public confidence in authorities in the West, this is still not the case in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover governments and police forces lack awareness that their performance is based not only on the effective investigation of criminal offenses and maintenance of public order but also on the adoption, support, and trust that citizens show toward the police as well as toward other stakeholders of the expanding security/police community. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze existing research findings on public confidence in policing bodies from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and to draw attention to gaps that still exist in this field that are typical for countries in transition.