Importance of Private Security for Citizen Safety in the Local Community

Abstract

Security plays a key role for the life of citizens in the local community. This is the reason that the government seeks for a way to solve the problem, both at the state and at the local level. A necessary condition for this is the appropriate legal framework to which primarily belong the provisions of the criminal law in the broadest sense of the word and the regulations relying on them. Scientific research is necessary in order for the regulations to meet the increasing needs. Research should be directed in three directions, the first being the research into the phenomena that threaten security, the second the exploration of the models for resisting the factors that threaten security, while the third is the design of normative framework.

A guarantor of security in modern society are likewise various entities of the so-called private security. The normative basis for their activity exists, however, according to many it is not on the necessary level and is frequently a hindrance to the development of this sector. Bearing in mind that private security sector employs approximately twenty thousand people and the area for expansion is significantly larger, the problems it is facing merit scientific support. In this regard, within the project „Citizen security in the local community“ of Rijeka University Law School has been conducted a research of the attitudes of persons responsible in the business entities of private security and security guards. The following aspects have been examined: determining the attitudes of persons responsible in businesses that deal with protection of persons and property, attitudes on the relationship with the Ministry of Interior’s inspection services, determining the evaluation of professional competence of security guards and guards, determining the frequency of security guards’ conduct in preventing crimes and misdemeanors and the assessment of the normative definition of security guards’ and guards’ tasks. The aim of this paper is to analyze and present results obtained in the survey on the state of private security in private security firms in the Republic of Croatia, with a special emphasis on their practical value.