The Attitude of Poles Towards Communal Police. Some Observations on the State of Civil Society in Poland

The concept of self-government system in Poland assumes an important role for municipalities, which is the basic territorial unit of community of residents. It is the area where, with the help of democratically elected authorities, the basic needs of local communities shall be fulfilled. One of these needs, and at the same time, the own task of municipality, is to ensure public order and security of citizens. According to legislation, the proper measure supposed to be the communal police (municipal police in municipalities), which is a local uniformed formation, providing administrative-ordinal tasks. The first units of the communal police were formed in Poland in 1991. For all these years, however, they did not become a common service in the country. The communal police function just in one-fourth of municipalities and generally focus the heaviest negative emotions and social opinion of all the uniformed services. The author of the study, indicating causes of this situation, comments their underestimated by citizens role in shaping public order and security of local societies, juxtaposing it with the state of civic consciousness.