Purpose

The aim of the study is to determine the perception of general public on the Serbian police behaviors in combating COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the perception of the citizens how successful the police units were in fulfilling their tasks.

Design/methodology/approach

Due to the state of emergency declared due to COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the restriction of movement and the need for social distance, the data collection for this study had to be conducted via the online survey platform (Google.doc). The study was conducted during March–April 2020, only four weeks after the state of emergency was declared. The participants were invited to complete the online questionnaire in their native language by using the snowball sampling strategy focused on recruiting the general public via social media tools.

Findings

Considering the fact that police officers are not sufficiently prepared and trained to respond in these specific circumstances, it is necessary to improve their engagement in the future by conducting appropriate training, procuring adequate resources, implementing adequate planning activities, etc. The results of the multivariate regressions of public perception preparedness subscale show that the most important predictor is gender and it explains 23.6% of the variance in preparedness subscale. The remaining variables did not have significant effects on preparedness. This model with all mentioned independent variables explains 6.1% of the variance of preparedness subscale.

Originality/value

Bearing in mind that there were no completed studies on public perception of police behaviors about the COVID-19 disaster in Serbia, the research has a considerable scientific and social importance.

中文翻译：

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公众对灾难中警察行为的认识COVID-19 –塞尔维亚的情况

目的

该研究的目的是确定公众对塞尔维亚警察在打击COVID-19大流行中的行为的看法，以及对公民的认识，即警察部队在完成任务方面的成功程度。

设计/方法/方法

由于因COVID-19大流行而宣布的紧急状态，尤其是行动受限和需要社交距离，因此该研究的数据收集必须通过在线调查平台（Google.doc）进行。该研究在2020年3月至2020年4月期间进行，距宣布紧急状态仅四个星期。邀请参与者使用雪球抽样策略以其母语来完成在线问卷，该策略旨在通过社交媒体工具招募公众。

发现

考虑到警察在这些特定情况下没有足够的准备和培训以应对情况，因此有必要通过进行适当的培训，获取足够的资源，进行适当的计划活动等来提高他们在未来的参与度。多变量的结果公众知觉准备量表的回归表明，最重要的预测因素是性别，它解释了准备量表的23.6％的方差。其余变量对准备工作没有显着影响。具有所有提及的自变量的模型解释了准备量表的6.1％的方差。

创意/价值

考虑到还没有关于公众对塞尔维亚关于COVID-19灾难的警察行为的认知的完整研究，因此这项研究具有相当大的科学和社会意义。