Summary, or in search of solutions

Despite a uniform legal regulation, the functioning in practice of district safety and order committees and district crime prevention, public order and citizen safety programmes in Poland is very inconsistent and usually unsatisfactory. This is either due to general character of legal regulations or their deficiencies (implementation of the unification principle), different organisational models in different districts or due to lack of knowledge relating to the principles of organising and harmonising local safety. Therefore, a series of demands were made that relate to the politics of law and that aim at introducing changes that would improve the situation. These are the most important of them: – district safety and order committees shall not be appointed obligatorily; the district governors shall decide whether to appoint committees or choose any other form of coordinating actions – it is suggested that local safety managers shall be appointed, who shall combine the mission of integrating various entities around local safety issues (establishing partnerships between various entities and services) and the efficient management; – the districts shall be released from the obligation to adopt safety and order programmes, and the process of their preparation (including risk diagnosis) and implementation (including evaluation) shall be substantively supported by the state. This aim may be served by the following: certification of programmes and financial support for the best projects using the system of grants. Despite a critical opinion on the quality of the existing programmes, they shall nevertheless be adopted in the districts; – following the example of Sweden, a national prevention board at the minister for internal affairs shall be appointed, which shall: provide substantive support for local actions, undertake research in order to develop knowledge in the field of ensuring safety and award certificates for the district programmes. – organise a system of co-financing local projects using the system of grants offered by the national prevention board, as well as public-private partnership and public-public partnership; – adopt new, national crime prevention programme in place of the Governmental Programme for Limiting Crime and Anti-Social Behaviours (“Together we are safer”) that expires in 2015 and that is viewed critically. If the recommendations are accepted, the process of coordinating actions aiming at ensuring local safety in Poland will be evolving from spontaneous actions (1990s), through obligatory forms set out in the statutes (2001–2014), to the development of many forms that are optionally allowed by law, as well as substantially and financially supported by the state implementing the concept of a cooperating state