NCJ Number
189489
Date Published
2000
Length
299 pages
Annotation
This document describes police systems in various post-communist countries and the challenges facing them.
Abstract
Since the Russian upheavals of the 1980's, the redefinition of police activity and organization has not really been accompanied by reflection on policy and implementation of public action. The organization depends today on local variables and an institutional environment sanctioning repressive measures. The Bulgarian penal system is struggling with a lack of coordination between the police and the law, and the inadequate nature of the prosecution service that is modeled on the Soviet system. The practical transformation of the Hungarian State apparatus, including the police, is proving to be perilous and erratic. Demilitarization, the reduced role of the state and decentralization are still in the project stage and adherence to European standards sometimes proves to be counterproductive. Following the social and institutional changes that have taken place in the Czech republic over the last 10 years, the police are facing problems of untrained personnel and the departure of experienced officers, along with suffering the effects of organized crime. Effecting change while respecting the social and historic features of Slovenian society is the challenge as the police in Slovenia transform from its focus of protecting the state to protecting society. The German capital of Berlin is a prime example of a successfully completed transition with the transformations of the police, the administration, and social actors that took place in 1989-1990. In the Central and Eastern European Countries, the effects of an asymmetric mutual confidence between police forces linked to a fear of corruption and the alleged vulnerability of police forces to Mafia infiltration is examined. Police cooperation and border controls along the frontiers of Germany and Poland and Germany and the Czech Republic have shifted spatially, temporally, and institutionally. The changing role of firefighters is discussed, along with the innovative concepts of crime mapping and the Chicago-style community policing program being demonstrated in France.