SARAJEVO – Young people from 18 to 30 years have the least trust in the police, older trust the police the most, it was pointed out at the presentation of results of the public opinion survey “The Citizens’ Opinions of Police Force” organized by CSS in the framework of the regional POINTPULSE network.
Armin Kržalić, Project Director at the Centre for Security Studies, pointed out that the results of public opinion research shows that the average level of confidence in police in the region is about 58 percent.
“The results of the research showed that more than 60 percent of citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina trust the police, while more than one third of citizens, 37 percent of them, has no confidence in police institutions. When it comes to school education, people with university degrees have the least confidence in the police while the persons with primary school education have the most confidence in the police”, underlines Kržalić.
The citizens of Montenegro have the most and citizens of Serbia the least confidence in the police, while in the Bosnia and Herzegovina, citizens of the eastern part of Republic of Srpska have the most confidence, while the lowest level of confidence has the population of Posavina Canton and Brčko District, said Kržalić.
“Research also shows that corruption in the police force is present to the same extent as the last year. Citizens consider the most corrupt traffic police, border police and the close associate of the ministers”, concluded Kržalić
Mirela Hodović, Researcher at the Centre for Security Studies, clarified that the implementation of POINTPULSE started in February 2015, with the aim to contribute to increasing the confidence in the police in the Western Balkans as well as promoting responsible work and strengthening the integrity of the police.
“The survey was conducted on the sample of 1000 respondents in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the POINTPULSE questionnaire, and the field work conducted by IPSOS”, explained Hodović
The event was attended by representatives from police institutions from different governance levels, international organizations and CSO representatives.
The survey was conducted in April 2016 on the sample of 6,000 respondents in Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia within the regional poll conducted by the civil society network POINTPULSE, with the field work conducted by IPSOS Strategic Marketing. More information regarding the research methodology can be found here, whereas the questionnaire is available here.
Civil society organizations
dedicated to oversight of police integrity.