Prospects for reform and community-based operations in Hungarian law enforcement

Budavári, Árpád Béla (2024) Prospects for reform and community-based operations in Hungarian law enforcement. SCIENTIA ET SECURITAS, 4 (4). pp. 334-343. ISSN 2732-2688

Preview

Text 112-article-p334.pdf - Published Version Download (335kB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper summarises the main theses of the author’s doctoral research, awareded with an excellent rating, and funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund and supported by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology’s Cooperative Doctoral Programme Doctoral Fellowship. The aim of the research is to take a position on whether organisational reform is necessary for a modern, socially integrated police force in Hungary that respects human rights. To reach his conclusion, the author reviewed the changes in the perception of security and the role of the police in society from the creation of modern states to the present day, and studied five foreign police reforms. He examined the process of social integration in the Hungarian police from the change of regime to the present day, analysing in detail the attempts at organisational reform and the reasons for their failure, as well as the situation of plural policing. In his empirical research, he carried out a questionnaire survey with the participation of 310 police officers serving in the public places in a police headquarters in a county, and interviewed 19 senior police officers, and compared these findings with those of a survey of the general public on a similar topic. According to his conclusions, the lack of reforming the rule of law in the period of regime change in the spirit of depoliticisation, decentralisation and demilitarisation can be considered reasonable in view of the social, political and law enforcement conditions of the period. Since the regime change, the Hungarian police has been experiencing changes in the direction of cooperation with the communities of society. Structural reform is not necessarily the way forward for the renewal of Hungarian policing. The changing, globalising world situation, which is burdened by serious crises, points to new directions for the development of the police. A state policing model that reinforces centralisation does not preclude the emergence of a community approach that is capable of cooperating with society. Changes in the direction of the three ‘de-’ can be facilitated by a paradigm shift that recognises and accepts the extension of policing.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item