Local Community Safety – Case Study

In its introduction, the paper defines the meanings of the words 'safety' and 'police'. Then it deals with different police organisations, their organisational structure and different police models of operation with the emphasis on studying the latest approach to the police work called community policing that is being introduced also in the Slovene police lately. Since the central topic here is local community safety, the paper deals with the community at which police work must be targeted. Then follows a study and analysis overview regarding the population's readiness to co-operate with the police. The empirical part of the paper presents an opinion survey among the Podravje Region population to find out to what extent people trust the police, how they are satisfied with the police work, what is the discrepancy between estimation and the expectations the Podravje population has for police officers, and how safe they feel. The survey shows the following: the Podravje population feels safe, people trust the police and they are ready to co-operate in solving safety problems. It has been ascertained that police officers fulfil people's expectations, because in dealing with people, the police were better than expected. KEY WORDS: • safety • police • public • local community • joint creation of safety