Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

MUNICIPALITY POLICE (Polish: straż gminna/miejska) – a uniformed formation created by the municipality council (rural or urban), which is intended to protect → public order in the municipality. It reports directly to the executive body in the municipality (village mayor/mayor/president of the city). Its tasks include: protection of peace and order in public places, supervision of order and control of traffic, control of public mass transport, cooperation with relevant entities in saving lives and citizens’ health, assistance in removing technical failures and consequences of natural disasters and other local threats, protection of municipal facilities and public utilities, cooperation with organizers and other services in order to provide protection during public gatherings and public events. Mun.p. was created seven years after the local-government reform of 1990 (until that time, after the political changes initiated in 1989, municipality polices were operating under the 1990 Police Act). The local government is established to meet the collective needs of local communities. One of them is the need to feel personal safety of its members. At the same time, as a public administration entity, it performs tasks in the areas of public safety and order, fire protection and crisis management. The scope of these tasks depends on the degree of decentralization of public authority. Local-government units carry out these tasks through the right to issue administrative law acts in the area of citizens’ security, influence on the activities of state institutions, in particular the police. Local government, especially at the local level, may also create its own self-government police services in the form of a subordinate organisational unit. In Europe, there were two models of local government’s participation in the protection of public safety and order. In the first one, which operated until the mid-1960s in the Scandinavian countries, the only entity responsible for the state of security were local government polices without involvement of the state. A more frequent organisational solution is the dualistic model – on the local level, beside the state formations, local polices operate [ A. Misiuk ].

Literature: W. Kotowski, Straże gminne. Komentarz, Warszawa 2014 ■ A. Misiuk, Administracja porządku i bezpieczeństwa publicznego. Zagadnienia prawno-ustrojowe, Warszawa 2008.