Professional paper

Disciplinary responsibility of police officers

Damir Juras ; Subdepartment for First Instance Disciplinary Procedures, Croatia

Abstract

The paper outlines the whole disciplinary procedure for the police officers in the Republic of Croatia, including statistical data for the procedures conducted from 2002 to 2005 at the Department of Disciplinary Procedures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In the introductory part of the paper, the author has emphasised the importance of police service as well as of respect for the duties of the police officers, stressing that police officers are held responsible for improper behaviour both at and outside work.

The concept and character of disciplinary responsibility of police officers,
general prerequisites for disciplinary responsibility, bodies in charge of conducting the procedure, and the parties to the procedure are analysed next. Analysing procedural provisions according to which disciplinary procedure is conducted, the author emphasises the inadequacies in implementation of the Law on Criminal Proceedings and the Law on General Administrative Procedure, and stresses the necessity of passing a special law that would regulate that area comprehensively.

Then follow the chapters on instituting the procedure, oral hearing, procedure costs, statute of limitations for institution and conduct of the procedures, types of disciplinary offences and disciplinary sanctions, legal remedies, and court protection.

Statistical analysis of the work performed at the Department of Disciplinary Procedures (Ministry of Internal Affairs) outlines all disciplinary procedures conducted against police officers. The author analyses individual institutes and identifies previous regulations, regulations concerning disciplinary responsibility of other state civil servants, judges and district attorneys, normative solutions in comparative legislation, and judgements of disciplinary courts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Administrative Court, the Constitutional
Court, and the European Court of Human Rights.

Finally, the author suggests changes of certain regulations in order to ensure efficiency and eliminate normative dilemmas in the conduct of disciplinary procedures. He is of the opinion that it is necessary to retain specialised disciplinary courts within the Ministry of Internal Affairs due to the specific nature of police service and the required efficiency and legality of its functioning.

Keywords

disciplinary responsibility; police officer; official duty; disciplinary court of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; disciplinary procedure

Hrčak ID:

135930

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/135930

Publication date:

18.12.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

Visits: 4.701 *