Possibilities and Obstacles of Police Digital Communication with Citizens and the Community

Abstract

Communication via digital communication channels has been present in police work for a long time. In the period between 2010 and 2014, the European Commission financed a scientific research project to understand organizational changes in the police in different European countries, including changes related to the introduction of new information and communication technologies into police practice. That research showed that the police use social media to detect crimes and their perpetrators and establish quality relations with citizens and the community. As a follow-up to that study, this qualitative research aims to identify the possibilities and obstacles of police digital communication with citizens and the community to achieve a relationship of cooperation and trust between the police and the community. Four focus groups were conducted in two police administrations in eastern Croatia. The research was conducted on a sample of 40 participants, mostly officers of the regular police, including community policing officers, and the rest are criminal police officers dealing with general criminal matters. The obtained results show, just like the results of numerous foreign studies, that such an approach can be effective in providing transparency of police work and increasing trust between the police and citizens, but with adaptation of the selection of channels and content of communication to the target audience.