POLICE RAIDS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE – RELICT OF OLD SCHOOL CRIMINALISTICS OR JUST A DEMONSTRATION OF FORCE

Abstract

The paper first discusses the normative regulation of the raid, as a type of restriction of movement in a certain area, which is carried out by the police, and then this action is viewed as a criminalistic institute and its evolution is followed through scientific interest in the mentioned phenomenon. Frequent application of raids in domestic police practice could, at first glance, give it the epithet of a useful tool in the fight against crime. The author tried to examine this thesis through empirical research of raids in catering facilities on the territory of Serbia, conducted during 2017 and 2019, in which the sample consisted of a total of 738 respondents, 442 citizens and 296 members of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia. Parameters related to the preparation, objectives, implementation, outcomes and analysis of the conducted raids were analyzed by descriptive statistics, correlation method and interview, as well as the subjective feeling of respondents regarding the frequency and justification of implementing such a measure. The obtained data were interpreted in the discussion through the prism of comparative practice and relevant studies on this type of police activity, within the strategies of enhanced police action (hot spot policing) and their effects on the situation of crime. In this way, author tried to popularize the issue of raids in the scientific framework and to improve the practical criminalistic and police activities, as scientific and social goals of this paper. The results of the research show that the raids are well received both among police officers and among citizens, although there is no clear evidence of their positive effects on crime prevention. In the absence of domestic ones, the author referred to the relevant foreign researches, which notice several main weaknesses of this kind of police action on criminal hotspots – short-term effects and the so-called. “spillovers” of crime. In the end, instead of spectacular large-scale actions, among which the majority of affected are ordinary citizens, the creators of police action strategies are suggested an individual approach in solving the problem of crime.