In 1829, Sir Robert Peel issued the nine statutory principles for the modern police force. Six of them dealt with relations between the police and citizens. The second is characteristic: “Always recognize that the ability of the police to carry out their functions and duties is linked to public recognition of their existence, practices and behavior, and their ability to ensure and maintain respect for citizens.” To further solidify this relationship, Peel established that the first policemen should be dressed as civilians, wearing suits and top hats. Policing in the UK, especially the famous community policing, is still largely based on these principles. No wonder, because this is the first version of the social contract for security.

But do such relationships exist between police and citizens today? In too many countries, including the UK, this link is severely disrupted. With a loss of confidence and intense interrogation of institutions, the police, which also often come into conflict with groups of citizens, have come under fire. In many cases, this is part of the polarization. In the US, for example, police brutality has contributed to deep divisions and conflicting identities and movements.

Greece is no exception to the general crisis of confidence in institutions, but also in the police. In our country, there are two structural problems that complicate the relationship between police and citizens: political confrontation and police bias, and the cultural trauma of the civil war and the junta regarding the role of the security forces. Instead of talking about the police of 2050, we see political confrontations about the role of the gendarmerie in the junta.

There is a complete lack of a culture of consensus on security and the role of the police in Greece, with the result that opportunities for building citizens’ sense of confidence in the police are limited. However, there are three points to be noted.

The partisanship and the trauma of the Civil War and the junta complicate the relationship between security agencies and citizens in our country.

First, police brutality. The Greek police hold a large number of demonstrations every day. Riots often break out and violence is used. Thus, the issue of police brutality is a perennial factor in the loss of confidence. It is not only the use of force as such that creates problems, since the Greek police are less brutal than others, a sense of ineffective responsibility and punishment for cases of arbitrariness.

The second point is corruption in the police. Complaints and revelations by the media, as well as statements by the Minister of Citizens’ Protection himself about the cleansing process, highlight the problematic situation. To the general suspicion of police corruption, add prosecutorial investigations, complaints about non-departmental interference in crises and the placement of officers, revanchism, and harassment of officers and services. The worst aspect of the problem are the complaints about the infiltration of the police by organized crime groups, which work together with low efficiency in investigating cases of organized crime and especially the mafia type.

The feeling of insecurity that has recently appeared in various public opinion polls is the third point. The absence in Greece of a comprehensive preventive policy needed to deal with forms of violence and crime such as domestic violence, delinquency and sexual abuse of minors places the burden of management on the police, which in most cases they cannot do more. than to arrest suspected criminals.

These problems concern not only the Greek police and Greece. Also, these are not problems created in the last few months or years. These are chronic pathologies of a closed organism. The Greek police are neither completely corrupt nor inadequate nor ineffective. But it needs, with the support of the political leadership, to face the problems mentioned above and others, such as the rejection of reforms, in order to change the era. Structural changes can also lead to new trusting relationships with citizens, which is an essential security parameter.

Mr. Triantafyllos Karathrantos is a PhD in European Security and Emerging Threats and Chief Scientist at ELIAMEP.