SECURITY ASSESSMENT IN THE FUNCTION OF COVERT POLICE ACTIVITY

Abstract

 The state has always tried to timely collect data about occurrences that can negatively affect the preservation and protection of vital social interests by its intensity and manner of expression. In that way, it sought to secure a certain "advantage" and organize the entities of its security system in a way that guarantees an adequate response to the destructive effect of various security phenomena. The method of collecting data is conditioned by the availability of the sources from which the data is to be collected. Having in mind the fact that the most important data are under a special protection regime (stored as classified information) and the techniques for collecting them must be adapted to their conspiratorial character and must be hidden (secrets).

Covert police operations are an important instrument in collecting such data and information that cannot be collected in any other way and are important for criminal proceedings and for opposing the most difficult forms of crime. These operations are carried out covert, without the knowledge of the person against whom they are directed, and their implementation temporarily restricts human rights and fundamental freedoms, primarily the right to privacy. In this regard, given their sensitivity, the security assessment is a very important segment in the planning, preparation and implementation of covert police activity.

The paper points to the purpose and necessity of covert policing in the collection of important data for criminal proceedings. Particularly emphasized is the specificity of covert data collection. Special attention is paid to the importance of quality security assessment referring to its specificity in the process of planning, preparing and implementing covert police operations.