| Abstract [eng] |
This paper is dedicated to exploring the context of some of the research questions that are at the heart of the research project („Policijos veiksmų modeliavimas siekiant padidinti bendruomenės saugumą krizinėse situacijose“/ “Modeling the Police activity for the enhanced security of communities during crises/adverse situations” (No. S-LU-26-3) 2026-2027, which is financed by the Lithuanian Research Council). While the issues of what is the difference between security and safety have been explored in-depth by one of the authors of this paper1and2; another theme of utmost importance is contextualization of police (law enforcement in general, please, note, law enforcement and police will be used in an intermingled manner further on, as synonyms, though, surely, there is a difference between the terms). At the same time, the fabric of contemporary society is being analyzed. However, in this paper the main focus is on the relative, perceived, and also reported preparedness of police to react to adverse/crises, which -the authors of these lines will bethe first to admit -were not the direct focus. In contrast, the second publication was developed in 2021. That is, when the full-fledged war in Ukraine was still in the feared, but not yet manifested, future. We, researchers, have to come to terms, that sometimes our predictions, the feeling of unease that we try to communicate to the wider society, are unpopular at the time of communication, and may be even both not helpful and depressing, when the predictions come to be true; and yet, even if a small proportion of compatriots are made aware of the trends and either re-configure their professional lives, and/or contribute to the best of their abilities to building up wider resilience, the likelihood of a lesser degree of losses increases. This is especially true for professionals, particularly those who work directly in critical institutions, such as medical care providers and other critical services providers, such as law enforcement. |
