ABSTRACT
To reduce the likelihood that police officers will be infected with the COVID-19 virus, police agencies might have either explicitly or implicitly allowed police officers to reduce the frequency with which they engage in both reactive activities (e.g., respond to the calls for service and take people into custody) and proactive activities (e.g., community policing and directed patrols). While three neighboring countries—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia—experienced the pandemic waves at about the same time, their responses were not identical. This chapter compares police officers’ perceptions of the change in frequency with which they were involved in reactive and proactive activities. The respondents in the study were about 300 police officers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1,300 police officers from Croatia, and 400 police officers from Slovenia. The results indicate that the perceived changes in certain aspects of police activities (e.g., calls for service, patrol, and traffic stops) were quite different across the countries, while the perceived changes in other types of activities (e.g., use of force and officer-initiated activities) were quite similar across the countries.
