Security and order committee as an actor of the local security policy

Abstract

Collegial advisory bodies are one of the highly institutionalized and formalized arrangements that ensure citizens' involvement in local decision-making and design of public policies. This paper aims to reveal functions fulfilled by security and order committees, an example of local authorities' collegial advisory bodies on local security policy. The article presents the results of qualitative research conducted through semi-structured interviews in selected Polish district cities. The author focuses on security and order committees that, although operating for many years in Poland, have been entities overlooked in the academic discourse regarding local security. Meanwhile, the research shows that the composition of the commissions and the scope of their competencies create conditions that allow them to participate actively in the local security policy programming. In addition, the competencies of the security and order committees enable them to evaluate local security policy. Furthermore, to a certain extent, they can also assess how local authorities carry out local security tasks.