The Slovenian police strive to maintain a good relationship with citizens and local communities, in particular when it comes to issues related to security. Police work is effective only if we maintain our presence in the community and when we identify community issues and tackle their causes in interaction with people. The strategy of policing that focuses on the partnership with communities is to identify and solve security concerns and is called community-oriented policing.
Police work in the community is built on trust
Community-oriented policing is based on establishing trust between police and residents. It includes not only operational activities for detecting perpetrators, but also long-term preventative activities. From time to time, police stations organise open days, informing residents about the local security situation, raising awareness and advising on self-protective conduct. This approach, coupled with police presence and visibility in the local community, increases citizens’ sense of safety.
It is impossible to imagine policing without the assistance and cooperation of citizens, because security is a common good that cannot be the sole responsibility of the police. For this reason, residents and local communities are encouraged to establish their own advisory bodies, also known as security panels. In this way, they can significantly contribute to decisions concerning security issues and help create safer communities, while they are assisted by police officers within the scope of their designated powers. Almost two hundred advisory bodies of this kind have been established in Slovenia.
Neighbourhood police officers
Community-oriented policing is performed by all police officers; there are police officers in police stations who operate as neighbourhood police officers. They are responsible for preventive work in the local community. The majority of their work consists of identifying safety-related issues, providing information on local crime, advising on crime prevention, talking to victims or people affected by crime, returning found and seized items, informal gathering of information, and visiting schools and kindergartens to give safety advice.
The neighbourhood police officer is the police officer in your town who, in addition to professional and life experience, has the people skills needed to cooperate with residents in the local area on a daily basis. You can turn to your neighbourhood police officer to get advice, express your concerns or seek assistance. You can also contact them if you wish to provide crime-related information or report a crime, an accident or a threat or if you wish to share security-related information or propose measures to improve safety in your community, including concerns that may seem trivial but are actually very important to you.
The "more pleasant" tasks
Prevention is aimed at deterring security-related incidents and has played an important role in police work for a long time. The role of the police is not only to react, but also to raise awareness and encourage people to act in a self-protective manner. Activities in this field include, for example, projects for schools, kindergartens and nursing homes, participation in preventive campaigns and other events, and advising residents on how to take care of their own safety and the safety of their property.
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