Zagreb – Unsafe City

It is hard in a country where success is if you unlawfully constructed something, but there is still hope for us.

When it comes to the number of armed robberies, various robberies, even murder, the amount of drugs and many similar indicators, Zagreb has become an unsafe city. With regret, we can determine we caught up with and overtook the developed countries, with a necessary note how there are various forms of crime in societies in which a large gap is present between the small circle of the wealthy and the large number of the poor. This is exactly what happened to Croatia as a consequence of introducing the cruelest form of capitalism in which profit eats people, and the system of values is completely disturbed. But, let us leave these analyses to experts, while it is up to us to try and do something. Local government and self-government have hardly any authority in this are, because the police is in the state jurisdiction. This still does not mean we must and may sit with our hands idle and watch. The city should as tightly as possible co-operate with the Zagreb police so it can be seen what we can do together to make Zagreb a safer city.

Bobby- failed project

A few years ago, the police started, according to London`s model, with the project of police officers in the neighbourhood, something like bobbies, our police officer who would be our neighbour, who would know us all, as we would know them, but it seems those were just sheer dreams. 

Sincerely, it appears to me this is one more failed experiment in a country of experiments and I am convinced 99 percent of Zagreb citizens have no idea who their bobby is. As far as I can find out from the media, we are constantly short of police officers, and out of the number we have, a third of them is on sick-leave or out of circulation. Besides, how can one attract quality personnel when salaries are minor, bellow every line of survival, so we wonder if someone can be bribed with a few hundred kuna. The number of punished and suspended police officers grows, but we actually solve consequences in that way, and not the sources. I hope Minister of the Interior Ivica Kirin will not take my criticism as an assault on the basis of the Croatian state, because the Ministry headed by him actually does not show results like the ones citizens would expect to see. To point out something most banal: is it really a problem to stop the arrogant drivers, as a rule our golden youth whose daddies bought them expensive and fast cars, who turn our streets into racecourses, it is not rare for machines worth hundreds of thousand euro rush by at the speed of over 150 and 200 km/h through Savska street, Horvacanska, Slavonska or Zagrebacka Avenue, but through the city centre.

There were some suggestions to cover the city with video cameras, but reactions as well how citizenship freedoms would be violated, how we would turn into a police state.

Robberies happen where the cameras do not exist as well

Cameras really should be put up everywhere where it is necessary for safety, although this kind of objection should not be neglected. But I am worried by robberies which happen where the cameras already exist or where security guards are obligatory by law. This is again a new problem. Security guards do not have the adequate authorities, and with that, they are shamefully underpaid. Their salaries hardly reach half of the city average, while their bosses and owners arrogantly show off with expensive cars and huge villas. As I keep repeating, as citizens are my partners, so should the police develop this partner relationship with the citizens. It is hard in a country where success is if you unlawfully constructed something- the real set of values, but as long as there are decent people, like the saleswoman who returned 5,000 lost euro, there is still hope for us.

Tatjana Holjevac,

United Independent Lists (SNL)