Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

Securing of a democratic order is a vertical process (“from above downwards”) responding to the needs and concerns of certain persons and community groups and looking for the public trust, consent and support. Thus it is based on transparency and dialogue. There are social scientific and moral debates over what practices are most conducive to a democratic police (e.g., centralization vs. decentralization, specialists vs. generalists, internal vs. external controls, closeness or distance from those policed, maximum or minimum discretion, single vs. lateral entry). But it is clear that a democratic police can take many forms.