key: cord-0061004-5es2d4na authors: Karlović, Ruža; Jelaš, Ivana Glavina; Osterman, Damir title: International Security Management in the Croatian Police: Presenting a Multi-faceted Approach date: 2020-05-28 journal: International Security Management DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-42523-4_21 sha: 351e67c3e711902e0d3d267999e6b45af907a6bc doc_id: 61004 cord_uid: 5es2d4na This chapter describes essential prerequisites for a comprehensive and integrated analysis of international security management in a modern police force. Using the Croatian police as an example, the relevance of education with a special focus on the mental resilience of the police force, the value of evidencing practices through sound research and effective data security management are addressed. The concept of police subculture and the functioning and organisation of the Croatian police are also presented for the purpose of providing the background for discussion. Finally, examples of some successful international research projects are presented. The objective of this chapter is to describe various ways in which international security management is addressed within the Croatian Police, under the assumption that international police cooperation is aimed at securing the conditions for the creation, improvement and maintenance of a state of security at the national and international level. Contemporary society focuses on security in the national and international context, the security of society and personal security, which must be protected from a variety of threats. In contemporary democratic society, the police are expected not only to uphold the law but to abide by human rights, to protect citizens without prejudice and to be at the disposal of society. Security, as a public good, has an important impact on social and political processes. The classification of securityinternal or external-implies the broadest security challenge of society today, as the traditional divisions of domestic and international security are fast disappearing (Schröder 2016) . The consequence of these changing security challenges, such as transnational crime, terrorism and irregular migration, have led to an alignment of internal and external security. 1 Lutterbeck (2005) indicated that the police are taking on military characteristics and extending their activities outside of state borders. He also stated that the division into internal and external security can be considered obsolete. In today's society, the police are adapting to new security conditions and harmonised strategies to ensure that international cooperation can provide benefit and security to all European citizens (Bayerl et al. 2017) . Gerspacher (2008) has emphasised that police cooperation is going through cycles, which means that, at first, the political level of a country encouraged international police cooperation. Subsequently, the operational level took first place in international police cooperation through data sharing and joint criminal investigation, and in today's security environment the political level of a country is emerging in the context of fostering international police cooperation. In order to balance the political and operational levels, police establish and promote international police cooperation through their liaison officers. Lemieux (2010) sees them as relatively new actors within police forces whose arena is international and their function is to convince political actors in their respective countries to implement good foreign practice in preventing and combating crime. Therefore, in order to prevent crime and protect the national interests of a country, international police cooperation is encouraged and pursued at the political, strategic and operational levels in parallel. For this reason, formal systems of cooperation have been established, for example, through liaison officers 2 in Croatia. Some of their activities include representing the interests of the Croatian police, establishing, encouraging and developing international police cooperation, exchanging information with police liaison officers of other countries, monitoring and observing the security situation in the receiving country or region and obtaining and exchanging information to support the conduct of criminal investigations by the Croatian police in order to combat organised and economic crime (Regulation on Police Liaison Officers, OG 71/18). The development of a transnational police subculture has evolved from current efforts to combat transnational crime. According to Andreas and Nadelmann (2006) a police officer remains a police officer, regardless of the country they come from or which badge they wear, and a criminal is a criminal regardless of citizenship or regardless of where the crime was committed (Bowling and Sheptycki 2012) . Exposure to and cooperation with foreign colleagues and organisations through international police investigations has raised awareness among officers that the job involves very similar challenges, benefits and duties. Police officers have begun to voluntarily adapt to the policy of helping one another by using these mechanisms, which will likely result in greater success (Gerspacher 2008) . The work of police has become more complex, more founded on knowledge and more professional, as in the twenty-first century it consists of numerous levels and models all interacting with one another. The challenges of the contemporary organisation and functioning of the police is evident worldwide, with greater efforts invested in exchanging experiences, practices and personnel (Glomseth et al. 2011) . As a social process, the function of the police and organisation of police forces largely depends on the socio-political characteristics of the society in which it operates. As Bowling and Sheptycki (2012, p. 85 ) pointed out, policing implies "a set of technologies and practices which aim to help maintain the health of the social body." In the following, we will discuss requirements for police to function in such a complex and integrated environment. We discuss these requirements in the context of the Croatian police as an example of an internationally oriented police force. For background, we start with an overview of the organisation and functioning of the Croatian police. In the Republic of Croatia, the police are a national institution and the central core of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP). The Police Act defines the police as the central service of MUP that provides citizens with protection of their fundamental constitutional rights and freedoms and other values protected under the Constitution, as the fundamental legal act of any nation. The organisation of the Croatian police is governed by the lex specialis that organises the police force into three hierarchical levels (Police Directorate, Police Administrations and Police Stations). The importance of the role of police in Croatian society is based on the tasks of the police that are defined under the Act on Police Duties and Authorities. The three hierarchical levels of the police organisation mentioned above include three levels of management: strategic, tactical and operative. In the context of international cooperation, the highest level of strategic management is at the level of the Ministry (MUP), which is responsible for international cooperation. Furthermore, strategic police management is performed at the level of the Police Directorate, which is the administrative organisation within the Ministry. The functions of the Directorate are outlined in the Regulation on the internal organisation of the Ministry of the Interior. To perform the duties from the scope of work of the Police Directorate, the following organisational units have been established: Office of the Chief Police Director, Police Administration, Crime Police Administration, Border Administration, Special Security Administration, Police Operational Communications Centre, Special Police Command and Police Academy (Article 15 of the Regulation). The heads of these organisational units of the Police Directorate form the police management at the strategic level. The police system is complex. It is made up of people (staff), and its effectiveness, efficiency and social status at national and international levels depends on the competencies, wellbeing and enthusiasm of the people who make up this system. Investing in the knowledge and mental resilience of police officers is and should be the priority (as will be discussed further in a later section). Orlović (2018) stressed that the management process consists of links between management activities, system and standard activities and the human potential in the sense of police officers and police managers. In democratic societies such as Croatia, ensuring that police officers attain a high level of education and professionalism is thus an important national priority. For that reason, the Police Academy (organisational unit of the Police Directorate) is a key institution for the education of police officers at all levels. The tasks performed through this organisational unit also imply laying the foundation for executing and implementing security management at the national and international level. The Police Academy consists of the following organisational units: Police College, Josip Jović Police School, Department for Professional Training and Specialisation, Department for the Development of Police Education and Publication Activities, centre for training guide dogs and police dogs and the Police Museum (see Fig. 1 ). The Police Academy provides comprehensive education for the profession of police officer, in addition to specialisation, professional development and training, police training and higher education, developing specialisation programmes. The Academy also performs tasks associated with the mental health of students in different police education programmes. Police personnel-both managers and operatives-receive education and life-long training at the Police Academy. However, different European countries have different systems. For example, police education in Finland is organised in the same manner as in Croatia. The Finnish police system is strictly centralised and the Police University College in Tampere 3 is part of the Ministry of the Interior. But in some countries Police Colleges are separated from the operational part of the Ministry of the Interior and positioned at a higher level within the Ministry or are part of the state university. For example, in Budapest, Hungary, the Faculty of Law Enforcement is part of the National University of Public Service (Nemzeti Közszolgálati Egyetem) 4 comprising five faculties (The Faculty of Military Sciences and Officer Training, the Faculty of Law Enforcement, the Faculty of Science of Public Governance and Administration, the Faculty of International and European Studies and the Faculty of Water Sciences). The Faculty of Law Enforcement is affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior and the Judiciary in order to be linked with police practice. In Wien, Austria, the Security Academy (Sicherheitsakademie-SIAK 5 ) is a part of the Interior Ministry. However, the Academy does not have a police college of its own but runs a study programme (police leadership) at the University of Applied Sciences of Vienna, which takes place in Wiener Neustadt. The College of Policing in the UK 6 is the professional body for policing. It operates independently of the Home Office. The German Police University 7 is situated in Münster, the capital of Westphalia in the North-West of Germany. It is an internal academic University for senior police officers. The university is supported by the interior ministries and the federal government. Except at the federal level, in some German provinces (e.g. Bavaria) police studies are conducted at the 'Hochschule für den öffentlichen Dienst in Bayern', 8 which is not part of the police operational services and where study in the 'Fachbereich Polizei' (Department of Policing) is conducted in Fürstenfeldbruck. International cooperation is prominently displayed on all official websites of these police institutions. It can be concluded that police education in Europe, through its institutions, entails common functions, namely education and research, and that the main goal is to improve police practice through educated and trained police officers. This section will outline the concept of police subculture and its definition in today's societies and how it is perceived by the police and the public. Police subculture and policing around the world has similarities but, as already mentioned in an earlier section, policing in different countries differs because of the history, law, demography and culture of the society in which police operate (Bowling and Sheptycki 2012; Rowe 2018) . The police subculture generally speaking, is a part of the dominant culture of a society. That means that it is based on the values and standards of the society in which the police functions and in which the police have a special subset of values and standards, positions and expected conduct of police officers. Research on the topic of police subculture dates back more than half a century. Skolnick (1966) outlined three elements that shape police subculture and practices: authority, danger and pressure to achieve results that depend on the time, place and surroundings in which an officer is working (also Reiner 2016). Academic discussions on police personality stress that work-related experience shapes the professional personality of a police officer-whether this is a result of the existing personality that gives the individual a predisposition to police work or whether it is the result of professional socialisation in the workplace over the course of the police career (Glasner 2005) . Reiner (1992) described police culture through the elements of action, cynicism, pessimism, doubt, isolation, solidarity, conservatism, machoism, pragmatism and prejudice. In fact, these are the classic elements of the police subculture recognised today. Is it worthwhile discussing whether the transnational and international work has altered the police subculture? Is there a common police culture, and does it still depend on the structural characteristics of the society in which the police operate as an institution? Several authors have given their views on this subject, including the statement that the subculture of the 'global cop' creates a blurring of the boundaries between police forces (Bowling and Sheptycki 2012) . Regarding the subculture of global security issues and threats (new phenomenology of crime), it is legitimate to conclude that human resources are the most important element (equal to modern technology) of global policing and that investments into education should be one of the core tasks of strategic management. (The fact that mental stability is a prerequisite for such a responsible, high risk job is discussed in the next section dedicated to the importance of the mental health of officers as the part of their education.) The public is interested in the work of the police, with the media often criticising their work, which further shapes the mentality of the police subculture. Although police officers are educated and trained to maintain a high standard of conduct, they are also human and can make mistakes, as they are expected to quickly make decisions based on valid laws and guidelines. There is always the possibility of mistakes; however, those rare deviations are in the spotlight of the media, as opposed to the valuable, honourable, brave and enthusiastic acts of the great majority of police officers. This can lead to a further separation between police and citizens and a more insular police culture. The police subculture is a part of the dominant culture, and as such can change. Changes are slowly accepted in accordance with changes in the social structure of the police profession and the environment in general. In this sense, it can be stated that the value of education is no longer on the back burner and that education has become a priority in the police profession, stimulating constructive changes in the police subculture. This approach to education and training of police officers also enables faster and more efficient international police cooperation in conducting criminal investigations not only through formal channels but also through informal channels, whose realisation is far quicker than formal ones. In other words, informal contacts made through participation in various police organisations such as the International Police Association (IPA), 9 research activities and sports activities with an international character allow direct connection of police officers from different countries. Education is one of the most powerful prevention tools in the battle against deviant behaviours in society and can be viewed as a security tool-both in the objective and subjective sense. Earlier in the chapter, we emphasised the important role of the Police Academy for the education of police officers in the Republic of Croatia. Here we want to consider education as a means to increase citizens' safety. We are not deliberating the classic form of learning new skills or knowledge that will directly impact the feeling and factor of security-such as various programmes intended to master knowledge that aids in handling dangerous situations. Therefore, we will not consider those forms of education by which police officers learn and develop specific operative or psychomotor skills, which they afterwards use to handle threatening situations. Rather we will aim to outline the importance of officer training on the subject of mental resilience and mental health generally-in the context of increasing security as an elementary product or service of the police organisation. Police subculture has a strong influence on the field of police officers' mental health care. Officers are frequently confronted with various stressors that may affect their mental health (Van der Meulen et al. 2017). Those outside the police world cannot imagine the content and stressors that officers are exposed to in their work, both in the operational and organisational sense. Indeed, police work demands a natural suspicion, as it also demands a dose of machoism, since police officers are dealing with those occurrences that the rest of society avoids. Therefore, these are the elements that can literally save the lives of citizens and of the officers themselves, if they are in danger. Although useful in one sense, elements of police subculture can also present a serious threat to the mental health of officers, making officers suspicious, closed and resistant to psychological treatment and less inclined to admit having any psychological troubles or to seek professional psychological help. Research shows that it is not just the stressors themselves but officers' manner of coping with them that determine psychological adjustment (Aaron 2000) . Unfortunately, officers often reach for maladaptive coping mechanisms to deal with stress, such as avoidance coping, which implies cognitive or behavioural avoidance and negation of a problem (Hudek-Knežević and Kardum 2006) . Although the very features of the police profession already place officers in a risky group in terms of threats to mental health, these coping mechanisms can make them even more vulnerable. Furthermore, stress acts significantly in reducing cognitive capabilities (Turner et al. 2017) , which in turn reduces the quality of work and job performance (Murali et al. 2018) . Therefore, investing in the care of police mental health in general as well as in education regarding this topic is essential, both for their personal health and for the quality of the work they do, as this ultimately reflects on the security of citizens as beneficiaries of police services. The Police College Mental Health Centre in Croatia provides a proactive and successful approach to the mental health of police officers with the emphasis on the concept of mental resilience. Mental resilience implies an individual's positive adaptation in the face of adversity, i.e. one's success in dealing with significant stressors in a healthy way (Färber and Rosendahl 2018) . There has been an increased focus on protective factors such as resilience in research of police officers' wellbeing, as-although resilient individuals usually experience some level of distress after exposure to a 'personally disturbing' incident-they maintain the ability to function (Falconer et al. 2013) . Ramsey and Markovic (2016, as cited in Spence 2017) indicate that resilient officers can maintain composure and self-regulate their levels of stress in challenging situations. The Centre's approach unfolds in three steps. The first step is analysed here as the concept of education, followed by a mental resilience programme or treatment and then the scientific validation thereof. Education implies changing deeply rooted and internalised misconceptions of the mental health care concept. This must be carefully conceived and adapted to the processes and elements of police subculture. After the education, officers who have been made aware of their previous maladaptive care for their own mental health, voluntarily seek out offered programmes in individual or group form, which are (in the third step) scientifically validated. It is necessary to stress the importance of education in the sense of preventative care for the mental wellbeing of police officers. Especially, when discussing the mental health of officers, particular attention should be given to the mentioned construct of mental resilience. That is, particular attention should be given to those officers, who are mentally healthy, for the simple reason that investing in their mental health will enable them to stay healthy despite performing one of the most demanding jobs. This in no way reduces the importance of care for those who have already developed certain mental difficulties and symptoms, although the emphasis in care should be on prevention and on creating mental resilience, as this will aid officers in staying healthy despite the exposure to numerous stressors. Mental trainings have proven to be an exceptionally significant tool in the preventative sense since they aim to overcome stress and create mental resilience (Kaplan et al. 2017) . Unfortunately, we often witness the completely unfounded belief that good selection is sufficient to prevent the development of mental difficulties amongst police officers. The selection procedure at the time of acceptance into the police service implies selection of the most physically and mentally fit individuals. Although selection is exceptionally important in ensuring that the most capable are chosen for police work, and while this certainly reduces the risk of the development of mental health issues, this is not a means for retaining and nurturing the mental health of those selected. Regardless of the emotional stability or high tolerance level and high selfcontrol of the ones chosen, this job can impact even the most resilient if ongoing care is not provided for their mental health. Mental health, as a concept, does not represent a permanent and unchangeable condition but instead is subject to fluctuations and changes depending on the situational context and experiences a person is going through. Therefore, continuous investments and maintenance is required for those selected as the best candidates. Hence, the first step in preventative care is certainly the concept of education, as it prepares the police population for the implementation of the psychological programmes or trainings, especially most up-to-date ones. The last and very important step in approaching the police subculture in the context of mental health is the scientific validation of the applied forms of care. The work of the Croatian Police College Mental Health Centre has shown that officers react exceptionally well to the offered forms of treatment whose efficiency has been scientifically confirmed among Croatian officers (Glavina Jelaš et al. 2018 , 2019a . This has also proven to be a very successful form of motivation for officers to volunteer for the offered mental health care programmes. The importance of creating so-called prototypes should be emphasised, given their significance in the further education and motivation of police officers in the appropriate care of their own health. Prototypes are officers who went through a certain form of psychological care and then passed on their experiences to their colleagues. Furthermore, education should be directed at creating officers who are capable of the further implementation of specific programmes. However, this does not refer to the provision of psychological help since this can exclusively be provided by verified and trained mental health experts. Instead, this refers to officers who have been trained in a sort of facilitator role, such as co-guidance of mental training sessions. Officers who are trained in this manner can then use their example and experience, which in turn motivates other officers and helps to change their stance and beliefs surrounding mental health care. Furthermore, it is very important to conduct mental health education at all management levels. If top management is not educated, it will likely have little or no understanding of the need for education among the lower tiers. Spence (2017) highlights the important role of management for police officers' resilience and also highlights the fact that resilience is not just limited to individuals-it can be applied to organisations, and a resilient organisation is one which supports its people, recognises the risks of the job and seeks to protect personnel from those risks. It is also important to note that the organisational costs arising from work stress, not only in police organisations, reach staggering amounts in the billions of Euro each year (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work 2014). Costs, for example, arise from lawsuits by dissatisfied clients, procedural errors, sick leaves, etc. An additional source of costs regarding police organisations is often the early retirement of officers (Torres et al. 2003) . Therefore, education and investments into the mental resilience of officers can also be viewed as a very effective (economic) tool for police improvement in a broad sense, not just in support of international security management as contemplated in this chapter. In conclusion, investments into the education of police officers regarding mental health care and investments into officers' mental health in general-especially into mental resilience trainings and programmes-can be considered as an investment into the security of citizens in addition to the security of officers themselves. An officer under stress, whose cognitive functions such as perception, attention, learning and memory are weakened, cannot perform at the expected (quality) level in such an exceptionally responsible and demanding job. Education of police officers in the field of mental health should thus be part of the formal education of police officers, as is the case in the Croatian Police College. The harmful consequences arising from poor police work are multi-fold and are also evident in diminished security on different levels and especially from the perspective of international security management. Here we tried to elaborate on the importance of education as a form of security investment. Although there are many important educational issues for the quality of security management, in this chapter we have discussed the field of police officers' mental health with a focus on mental resilience of the officers. The main reason for this focus is that any kind of work outcomes are determined by our cognitive abilities and those abilities depend on our mental health and vice versa. So, the best way to begin with improvements to security management is to take care of the mental health of those in charge of security, in this case police officers. This area also demonstrates that scientific research and validation are an important element in officers' education regarding the mental health care topic. Due to elements of the police subculture such as suspicion and the fact that part of the police job is the search for evidence, officers appreciate proof of a psychological treatment's effectiveness in the form of researched and validated data. Yet, they appreciate researched products in general as well. Therefore, the next section will elaborate on the importance of science as an organisational resource supporting international security management. As an EU Member State, the Republic of Croatia participates in the EU Horizon 2020 programme, which offers numerous opportunities for financing research and offering innovation potential (Ključarić 2019) . It is based on three main priorities: Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges. This third priority includes challenges to the security of societies (Schröder 2016) . The aim of the Security Challenge sub-programme is to support EU policies for internal and external security and to ensure cybernetic security, trust and privacy within the Digital Single Market. 10 This is a centralised European Union programme that is managed by the competent bodies of the European Commission, although each Member State has a national support structure for participation in the H2020 programme. The first H2020 project, in which the Police College of the Croatian Police Academy was involved, was Unity, 11 which was aimed at strengthening the connection between the police and the diverse communities they serve to maximise the safety and security of all citizens. It was focused on technical tools to work in parallel with common community policing methods used today. The community and the LEA versions of the Unity tool were developed, which provide the means to report a new subject topic and allow for the generation of ideas and discussions on the best course of action for community issues. Due to LEAs' positions of authority, we have designated them to be the community policing coordinators, which will include responsibilities for moderating and posting the status of issues beyond the information the community can provide (James et al. 2016 ). The platform was tested in eight European countries, amongst them Croatia (cp. Fig. 2 ). This project was completed in 2018, and the role of the institution was described in the brochure entitled "Obzor 2020. Uspješnice u Hrvatskoj" (English: Horizon 2020 Success Stories in Croatia). 12 More information about the Unity project is available on the website of the European Commission. 13 The Police College is also part of the H2020 project entitled PROPHETS (Preventing Radicalisation Online through the Proliferation of Harmonised Toolkits). 14 PROPHETS researches how individuals become radicalised and what kind of technology and tools may help to reduce cybercrime activities. The main goal is to prevent serious crimes by building resilience in people and society. One of the project activities that should be mentioned is the conducting of original research. A standardised questionnaire was used in ten partner countries to examine Internet 10 See https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/secure-societies-%E2% 80%93-protecting-freedom-and-security-europe-and-its-citizens. 11 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/194893/factsheet/en, Grant agreement ID: 653729. 12 https://mobilnost.hr/cms_files/2019/02/1549530136_horizon-2020-web.pdf. 13 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/194893/factsheet/en. 14 For more information, please visit https://www.prophets-h2020.eu/. It was interesting to see that with regards to the purpose of collecting and monitoring online information by authorities, police officers were most accepting of reasons pertaining to revealing and preventing perpetrators of criminal acts and for the collection and monitoring of information pertaining to suspects. However, police officers responded that it was less acceptable for the state bodies to monitor their personal accounts, websites they visit, content of the emails they send and receive, etc. Part of the results from this research are shown in Fig. 3 . These results are a test of people's attitudes about the current security concept, i.e. legal norms related to security management, and can be used to adapt and optimise security standards related to privacy and security on the Internet. Generally, participation in Horizon 2020 with projects such as Unity, Prophets and Roxxane 16 extends our view of available solutions that we did not see before. It also makes us aware of security threats that are currently absent in our country-but as we live in a global interconnected world, crime and security risks have no boundaries. Participating in international projects allows us to acquire certain security solutions that can improve our existing systems. Participation encourages collaboration with other stakeholders important for crime prevention such as collaboration on financial crime, etc. As stated in the introductory section of this chapter, the purpose of international security management is to create the conditions for the exchange of knowledge and good practices as well as to develop and implement new solutions for the resilience of the system and the people in it. In our case, it is the police system and police officers who make up that system and maintain it for the benefit of all. In 2016, new legislation was introduced in the EU that had an effect on data management at the EU level: • In the Republic of Croatia, the right to security and secrecy of personal data is protected by the above laws and is also guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia in Article 37.1 (Official Gazette 85/10), which makes the right to the protection of personal data into a constitutional category. The above-mentioned legislation thus forms the foundation for how data are handled within the Ministry of the Interior. This legal framework is a positive step towards the protection of privacy and rights of persons for the protection of their personal data. However, this also presents a significant challenge for security managers in the context of protection and security they should provide in their work. While the private sector is required to do everything possible to protect the personal data of their clients in the digital environment, the police are faced with completely new challenges in obtaining the information they need for criminal investigations to protect people and property and to find the perpetrators of criminal acts. The development of data storage and processing systems in the Cloud, the appearance of OTT (over the top) service providers such as Viber, Skype, WhatsApp and others, have made it virtually impossible to determine where these data actually are. It can only be ascertained with certainty that they are located in the digital space, and therefore it becomes a problem to determine where and in which country they are actually found. Legal experts with a traditional view of national sovereignty believe that LEAs should not be permitted to access data in the Cloud before establishing in which country the data are kept and until they have requested the right of access from this country. Some countries have decided (e.g. Belgium and France) that they will attempt to reveal the country of origin of data in the Cloud, although where that fails, they will act under the assumption that these data are housed on their own territory (personal observation). There are also conflicting opinions as to whether the digital space should be interpreted in the traditional sense of national sovereignty or whether instead it should be considered a special sphere that surpasses national sovereignty 17 (also Johnson and Post 1996) . Regardless of the view concerning digital space, law enforcement agencies must find ways of accessing key information that can aid in revealing and resolving the most serious criminal acts, including terrorism and cybercrime, which are taking on greater roles in criminal organisations and which do not recognise state borders. Europol and Interpol are important in this area, given their capacities to aid Member States in collecting and exchanging data and experiences while CEPOL provides educational and scientific research activities to regularly pass on new knowledge in criminal research. In the Republic of Croatia, during criminal investigations and searches of computers and mobile devices, the police address this issue from the perspective that the data are situated in the country where the device is found, upon which the data were created and which has access to the Cloud for archiving. Investigations? Due to the digital transformation of the economy and accelerated growth of the digital society, more and more data that need to be acquired in criminal investigations are in digital form. These data pertain to communications, financial transactions, tracking movements using GPS, video surveillance of public and private areas, etc. Accessing these data is associated with a series of challenges that the General Data Protection Regulation has placed before law enforcement agencies, as the private sector has introduced new security measures to prevent data breaches and has reduced time periods or completely eliminated the need to retain certain data. This issue became most pressing after the repealing of Directive 2006/24/EC (Directive on the Retention of Data). Felonies and terrorist attacks have directed attention to the retention of electronic communications data by telecommunications service providers as a tool used in the protection of national security and solving criminal acts. The repealing of this Directive by the EU Court arose out of a state of legal uncertainty, particularly concerning the legal status of the national legislation transposing that Directive and the very availability of such data to law enforcement agencies and their use as evidence in criminal proceedings (Levak and Osterman 2017) . In its conclusions, the court has placed impossible conditions before law enforcement agencies, which are required to predict when a criminal act will occur and who the perpetrator will be, through the interpretation that data retention needs to be limited and as such cannot encompass all persons, all means of communication and all data transfers without any differentiation. Technical measures for data protection such as encryption, anonymisation and pseudonymisation, which have been implemented in recent years for the purpose of protecting communications and private data, have limited law enforcement bodies in the use of numerous techniques and tactics during criminal investigations. Law enforcement agencies are thus required to quickly adapt to these changes, adopt new knowledge and acquire tools that will enable them to decrypt data to ensure good quality investigations. A key role in this is played by management, which needs to understand new technologies, the new challenges faced by investigators and ensure suitable education of existing personnel, whilst also recruiting new personnel with the necessary knowledge in the field of digital technology. Data exchange in the digital society is taking on increasing significance, both in police cooperation and in cooperation with the private sector. International crime knows no boundaries, and therefore criminal groups use the digital infrastructure of different countries. For that reason, the Croatian Ministry of the Interior has established the Cyber Security Unit within the Crime Police of the Police Directorate. This unit is involved in criminal investigations and achieves contacts with the private sector in order to introduce a code of conduct that would enable access to certain data needed to conduct criminal investigations. The Ministry of the Interior also conducts activities on the digital exchange of data with other EU Member States in order to accelerate and ensure better data exchange and to detect transnational criminal groups. Criminal activity represents a threat to both interior and external security. The literature includes discussions on differences between safety and security threats (Jore 2019; Van Asselt 2018) , including opportunistic crimes (e.g. theft), organised crimes (e.g. sabotage, kidnapping, insider information trading), political crimes (e.g. terrorist attacks), vandalism, etc. However, the difference between security and safety should be based on the malicious intent of the perpetrator to cause harm. Perpetrators with criminal intent to cause social damages, such as hackers or terrorists, fall within the category of security threats, while persons avoiding security procedures fall within the category of safety threats (Jore 2019). In any case, when investigating criminal acts that fall within the category of security threats, cooperation is essential between the relevant institutions and organisations at the international level. In this context, the international police cooperation between the Croatian Ministry of the Interior is viewed through its cooperation and exchange of information via Interpol, cooperation and activities within regional initiatives, cooperation in the activities of working groups of international organisations, cooperation pursuant to bilateral agreements, etc. A special aspect is cooperation via liaisons, cooperation with Europol and facultative activities within non-governmental international police organisations (Rošić 2006) . Above all, the police perform criminal investigations to find and apprehend the perpetrator. Frontex also plays a key role in strengthening the internal security of the Schengen area. Thus, international frameworks together with their competent local implementation are foundations to enable efficient international collaboration. In this chapter we discussed and presented several elements we deem important for supporting international security management. We have analysed education focused on proactively building mental resilience in police personnel as a valued feature of modern police management, valuing of and participation in scientific research, the issue of data security and international cooperation frameworks as well as police subculture as an inevitable part of the security management concept. We have also tried to explain the functioning and organisation of the Croatian police to showcase how these various aspects work together to create the capabilities for international security management on all levels of the organisation. We also discussed the importance of police officers' mental health with a focus on the concept of mental resilience. We have elaborated on how investing in the education of police officers regarding mental resilience and investing in officers' mental health in general can be considered as an investment in the security of citizens in addition to the officers themselves. Educating police officers in this field should be part of the formal education of officers, as in the case of the Croatian Police College to ensure a sound basis for effective policing work. In addition, we discussed the importance of international research projects as an excellent mechanism for proactive action by LEAs, academics, NGOs, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders in combatting transnational and international crimes. This creates important networks amongst EU Member States as well as between LEAs and academia and industry and further supports the creation of practically relevant knowledge and tools on an international and often comparative scale. Data security management in Croatia was discussed in the context of EU standards (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Directive (EU) 2016/680) and Act on the Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation. Our discussion of the Croatian approach illustrates that it is important to continue international cooperation to exchange good practice, to gain new knowledge and to acquire certain security solutions through the police's participation in international research projects and the activities of international LEAs and organisations (Interpol, Europol, Frontex, CEPOL) . It further illustrates that international security management is a comprehensive concept that needs to be tackled on all levels of police organisations-from international laws and regulations down to the very people that secure our societies, i.e. police officers. Stress and coping in police officers Policing the globe. Criminalization and crime control in international relationships Community policing-A European perspectives Global policing. Thousand Oaks: Sage Calculating the cost of work-related stress and psychosocial risks Resilience and well-being in a Scottish police force The association between resilience and mental health in the somatically ill The history of international police cooperation: A 150-year evolution in trends and approaches. Global Crime Police personality: What is it and why are they like that? Now I'm mindfully driving through life-Croatian police officers' satisfaction with MBCT training Do Croatian police officers accept modern psychological treatments Mental and psychical health of Croatian police officers before and after the MBCT. InInternational Conference on Mindfulness Management position as determinant of leadership roles in police districts Stress and physical health Concept development of ICT tools and applications within the Unity Project. 5. Meðunarodne Znanstveno-stručne Konferencije Law and borders: The rise of law in cyberspace The conceptual and scientific demarcation of security in contrast to safety Role of resilience in mindfulness training for first responders Sudjelovanje RH u okvirnom programu EU "Obzor International police cooperation. Emerging issues, theory and practice Zaštita, zadržavanje i razmjena podataka kojima se koriste tijela za provedbu zakonodavstva te moguća tehnička rješenja vezana uz zadržavanje podataka nakon poništenja Direktive za zadržavanje podataka presudama Suda Europske unije Blurring the dividing line: The convergence of internal and external security in Western Europe Impact of job stress on employee performance Police management-Police officers' perception of the status (qualitative level) of fundamental functions of management in the police organization Opinion: Is police culture cultural Medunarodna policijska suradnja kriminalisticke policije Republike Hrvatske. Hrvatski ljetopis za kazneno pravo i praksu Introduction to policing Transforming the European state monopoly on the use of force. Think piece 08 Justice without trial: Law enforcement in democratic society Improving law enforcement resilience: Lessons and recommendations. Officer safety and wellness group meeting summary Preparing families for the hazards of police work. The Police Chief Perceived stress and cognitive decline in different cognitive domains in a cohort of older African Americans Safety in international security: A viewpoint from the practice of accident investigation Effects of mental strength training for police officers: A three-wave quasi-experimental study Ruža Karlović, Ph.D. is Vice Dean of the Police College for research, development and university study programme and a lecturer at the Police College, Zagreb, Croatia. She graduated in the field of Criminal Investigation in 2002 and received her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2012. She is chair of Ethics Committees and Erasmus + coordinator at the Police College and member of the Expert Committee of the Croatian Police and Security Journal. In the field of police sciences, she has co-authored a number of articles, scientific papers, conference abstracts and books, most recently "Community Policing-A European Perspective" (Springer). She has been involvd in a few security and safety projects within the H2020 Programme and the COST network.Ivana Glavina Jelaš, Ph.D. assistant professor, is the founder and head of Police College Mental Health Centre where she practices treatment, education and scientific work. She is also a psychology lecturer at the Police College, Zagreb, Croatia. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology in 2015 and became assistant professor in psychology in 2019. Her main research interest is in the field of police officers' mental health. She is a co-author of a university textbook and number of scientific articles. As lecturer she participated in numerous national/international conferences, as well as different seminars and courses. She is Erasmus + coordinator and member of the Ethics Committee at the Police College.Damir Osterman is a police officer, graduated in the field of business informatics. Currently he is head of process and technology development. He is a former Criminal Intelligence System Administrator with 27 years in the force and 19 years of experience in conducting criminal investigations using specialised tools and techniques. He also has more than ten years of experience in developing new methods and techniques in criminal investigations. He is a certified CiiSCM Security and Risks Management Consultant and has been involved in numerous international security and safety projects within the H2020 Programme.