Croatia
| Author | Jeremy Van Blommestein, Nathan Moran, Robert Hanser |
| Pages | 322-327 |
Page 322
Official country name: Republic of Croatia
Capital: Zagreb
Geographic description: A country in southeastern Europe on the eastern side of the Balkan Peninsula occupying most of the Adriatic coast
Population: 4,495,904 (est. 2005)
To understand the history of Croatia, one must travel back to the seventh century, when the Croats reached their present homeland, and in 679 entered into a treaty with Pope Agatho and became Christianized during the rule of Prince Viselav in 800. In 852 the name Hrvat (Croat) was recorded in a letter for the first time on the Adriatic coast, and in May 21, 879, Pope John VII blessed the Croatian Prince Branimir, Croatian clergy, and Croatian people in St. Peter's Church in Rome, causing Croatia to be recognized for the first time around the world. In 925 Croatia emerged as a nation-state under Ban Tomislav, who united Pannonian and Dalmatian Croatia and was crowned the first Croatian king. Religiously, Croatia also made strides when in 1094 the bishopric of Zagreb was established under the archdiocese of Ostrogon until 1180 and the archdiocese of Kalocza from 1180 to 1152, when finally Zagreb became, in 1852, an independent archdiocese.
As Croatia began to grow nationally, Croatia and Hungary became allies in 1102 and formed a special union called the Pacta Conventa, where Croatia remained independent but acknowledged the Hungarian king as its sovereign. Also in 1527 at Cetingrad the Croatian nobility elected Ferdinand of Habsburg, who pledged to uphold the laws and customs of the Croatian kingdom and to defend Croatia from the Ottomans. However, in the nineteenth century Croatia's nationalism was revived and the movement labored to terminate the Germanic and Hungarian rule over Croatia. In 1848 Croatians, led by Ban Josip Jelačić, ordered the reorganization of the Habsburg monarchy. Twenty years later, in 1868, the Croatian-Hungarian Treaty was adopted. This treaty politically recognized the Croatian people by granting them their own Parliament and autonomy in education, religion, and judiciary matters. At this time the Croatian language was also recognized as an official language.
In the early 1900s the Kingdom of Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes was formed, which was later called Yugoslavia. This resulted in the disbanding of the Croatian Parliament and the authority that it represented.
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In addition, several Croatian representatives were killed in the Belgrade Assembly of 1928. During World War II Germany separated Yugoslavia, thereby allowing for some recognition of Croatia, but the Croatian statehood could not develop because of the dominance of Yugoslavia.
Croatia finally emerged as a sovereign and independent state, and in 1990 the first free democratic elections were held. Franjo Tudjman won the election and became the president of a unified Croatia. Yugoslavia did not want to release its grip on Croatia, which declared independence on October 8, 1991. Bitter fighting continued for the next four years before Serbian armies were mostly removed from the remaining Croatian soil.
The organization of the Republic of Croatia is based on a political parliamentary democracy. The head of state is the president, who is also the commander in chief of the armed forces. The president is elected for a five-year period. A prime minister heads the government and is responsible to the Croatian Parliament (Sabor), which consists of the House of Representatives (Zastupnicki dom). The House of Representative members serve four-year terms. Because of the history of the Republic of Croatia and its need for independence, a new constitution was adopted on December 22, 1990. The constitution was further amended in November 2000.
Police organization is based on the Police Law of 2000. The General Police Directorate of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Croatia consists of a total number of 19,622 police officers. In addition, there are also 1,518 civil servants and civil service employees who are employed within the General Police Directorate. These civil service workers do not have any police powers.
TheGeneral Directorate comprises Police Headquarters, Criminal Police Headquarters (organized crime, war crimes, economic crimes, and drug-related crimes), State Border Administration, Security Headquarters, Police Operational and Communications Center, Special Police Headquarters, and Criminal Forensic Center.
The police officers in Croatia can advance through the ranks. These ranks are dependent on their level of education, their years of service, their position, and passing both the exam to achieve a new rank and the yearly evaluations. The following ranks have been established for police officers:
Chief Police Adviser
Police Adviser
Chief Police Inspector
Independent Police Inspector
Senior Police Inspector
Police Inspector
Senior Police Sergeant
Police Sergeant
Senior Police Officer
Police Officer
A police officer's salary consists of a base salary that is dependent on the complexity of a police officer's position. There is also an annual increase of 0.5 percent for every year of service. Besides the base salary, there is a supplemental salary that is based on one's rank, effectiveness at work, special working environments, endangerment, and duties. The Croatian government determines the salary scale in conjunction with the degrees of difficulty of a police officer's post.
The Croatian police have consistently been working at improving their relations with the community. One of the methods that they have used in developing this relationship is community policing. Instead of using traditional methods, community policing allows the police to develop partnerships with the community it serves. It is really a friendship or bond of trust that will cause the police to better understand a community and thereby make acceptable solutions to problems. One of the community policing methods that the police have used is visiting schools. Also, the relationship between the police and media can have an effect on community policing techniques. The police and media relationship was realized by a Globus journalist, Nelija Vrzina, and Korenica's police chief, Drazen Zivcic and their trip to Portugal was organized by the OSCE Mission to Croatia, the Croatian Ministry of Interior, and the...
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