Slovenians have a high level of trust in police as an institution and feel safe in their communities. However, the effectiveness and the local presence of police forces could be improved, according to the results of a public opinion survey presented at the Police Academy in Tacen on Wednesday.
In terms of trust, Slovenians gave the police an average mark of 3.39 of 5, with 45% of the respondents claiming they trust the police, 16% that they do not, and 37% said that they do not know.
The survey also found that 44% of the respondents were satisfied with police work and 17.6% were not happy with it. The average score on the issue stood at 3.35 of 5.
Slovenians are less satisfied with the level of police supervision, giving it a mark of 2.95 on average, said Slavko Kurdija of the Centre for Public Opinion Research at the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences, which carried out the survey.
In the survey, conducted between 16 and 27 October on a sample of 2009 respondents, the police received higher marks from women, people who do not drive, less-educated people and senior citizens.
In terms of characteristics of Slovenian police officers, the people polled stressed neatness, followed by resoluteness, politeness, kindness and communication skills.
Those surveyed believe that the police perform best in border control duties, enforcing traffic regulations and preventing illegal border crossing.
On the other hand, the people believe that police fare poorly in preventing drug abuse and vandalism, investigating white-collar crime and corruption.
The survey also shows that 78% of the respondents felt safe or completely safe in their communities, while they feel most threatened by traffic accidents, robberies and fraud.
Kurdija added that a survey carried out recently in 21 European countries found that Slovenians felt safe, as the country placed behind only Austria in terms of personal security.
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