An assessment of the cooperation of governmental agencies with the criminal investigation department in criminal investigations: The case of Slovenia

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe and to research cooperation between the police and other relevant government organizations. The subject of this paper is cooperation between Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives and workers at the Social Service Centers (SSC), representatives of Prosecutor's office, Court Investigation Departments, Attorneys‐at‐Law, workers at the administrative units, Market Inspectorate and Labor Inspectorate and tax authorities in Slovenia. The goal of this paper is to establish whether there is a correlation between forms of cooperation and satisfaction with cooperation among CID detectives and representatives of these various organizations with work relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

A study is conducted on a sample of 314 representatives of various organizations that CID detectives work within. A non‐experimental research design is used, the method of work is a field study, and the research technology is a questionnaire. Gathered data are analyzed with the help of SPSS for Windows performing descriptive statistic, factor analysis, analysis of variance and correlation analysis.

Findings

Findings show that there is connection between formal cooperation (FC), informal cooperation (IC) and satisfaction with cooperation between CID detectives and representatives of various organizations. Representatives of organizations have evaluated cooperation with CID detectives as good. They also indicate that representatives of various organizations are evaluating both forms of cooperation differently.

Research limitations/implications

Results are presenting assessment of cooperation and relationship between CID detectives and representatives of studied organizations that CID detectives work within offered by workers at the SSC, representatives of Prosecutor's office, Court Investigation Departments, Attorneys‐at‐Law, Workers at the Administrative Units, representatives of various inspectorate and tax authorities. For further complex evaluation of relations, the opinion of detectives cooperating in this matter would have needed to be obtained.

Practical implications

The main implications of the paper for managers in studied organizations are that they are encouraging different shapes of FC and IC between CID detectives and employees in those organizations, which should be based on ethical criteria and professionalism.

Originality/value

This paper deepens understanding of cooperation between CID detectives and remaining organizations and should be of particular interest to people who want to improve cooperation between all organizations.

Citation

Gorenak, I. and Gorenak, V. (2009), "An assessment of the cooperation of governmental agencies with the criminal investigation department in criminal investigations: The case of Slovenia", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 446-458. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510910981608