Comparative Analysis of the Quality of Policing in Local Slovenian and Croatian Multicultural Communities

Policing multicultural communities represents an important and contemporary challenge for police, since culturally diversified local environments raise many social and organisational issues regarding community relationships, problem solving and ensuring safety and security. Furthermore, the quality of policing in local communities is an important research topic in the field of police studies and requires special competencies. The estimation of the quality of police work gives an insight into which extent the strategic goals of police organisations are met and what the next steps towards improving their efficiency and legitimacy are. The purpose of this paper is to compare the results of community policing strategies in Slovenia and Croatia. The research was conducted in two municipalities (Lendava municipality in Slovenia and Cakovec municipality in Croatia), divided by national borders, whereas both populations consist of different cultural groups, such as Roma, Slovenian, Hungarian and Croatian residents. The goal was to analyse the quality of policing from four perspectives, which include topics regarding the quality of police officers" work: inhabitants' contacts, the perception of crime and disorder, fear of victimisation and level of community cohesion. The authors discovered differences between perceptions of police work between Roma and non-Roma populations, as well as differences between the Slovenian and Croatian subsample regarding relationship quality between local police and civil population. Overall findings indicate that members of the Roma community perceive problems regarding disorder and crime as less severe than non-Roma, while members of Croatian municipality express more satisfaction with police work in general. The comparative approach represents an original contribution to studies in the field of community policing, especially considering the inclusion of minorities and the fact that police work in multicultural communities remains under-researched.