Current problems of regulating civic participation in ensuring public safety

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the research topic is due to the need to identify problems that hinder the integrated development of civic participation (including volunteers) in ensuring public safety, as well as a mechanism for their solution. Creating conditions for the involvement of volunteers in law enforcement activities is a factor in increasing the security of individual territorial communities. The purpose of the study is to form an up–to-date understanding of the problems of legal regulation of the participation of volunteers and other civil society institutions in ensuring public safety and to substantiate individual proposals to overcome them. The methodological base includes a comparative legal method that provides a comparison of the phenomenon under consideration in Russia and abroad. The formal legal and historical-legal approach allows us to trace the evolution of legislation in the field under consideration and draw conclusions about its imperfection. A systematic approach allows us to conclude that the regulation of volunteer activities in the field of security is fragmented. The results of the study. It was determined that the constitutionalization of the status of volunteers (volunteers) in 2020 became a condition for increasing attention to volunteer activities. Later, legislation on volunteer activity developed in a “catch-up” mode, that is, by consolidating the actual practice of volunteer activity. This led to a fragmented legal regulation of the participation of volunteers in ensuring public safety. The fragmentary nature of legal regulation is determined by the fact that the mechanisms for the participation of people's squads and public associations of law enforcement orientation in the protection of public order, the participation of volunteer fire brigades and teams in the prevention and extinguishing of fires and emergency rescue operations are separately defined. The correlation of the legal status of the above-mentioned subjects and volunteers (volunteers), organizers of volunteer (volunteer) activities and volunteer (volunteer) organizations is not unambiguous. The lack of a uniform conceptual framework hinders the harmonious development of civic participation in the implementation of the functions of public authority to protect society and the state. Conclusions. The development of a theory of the participation of civil society institutions in the organization of public security will contribute to solving the problems.

Keywords

• civil society institutions
• volunteers
• public safety
• non-governmental security system
• threats and challenges to security
• emergencies
• law enforcement