Kapitonova N. Municipal police in the structure of public authorities: theoretical and legal research

Thesis presents comprehensive research of municipal police role and functions in the structure of public administration agencies. National and foreign scientific theories on municipal police functioning as local governance executive agency are outlined. It is identified that despite the provision of legislative framework for the right of territorial community to establish local agencies responsible for public order protection, municipal police as a structural unit of public administration agency is still a poorly studied institutional and legal phenomenon. Separate aspects of municipal police functioning are presented within the boundaries of theoretical and specialized legal studies – therefore we are able to claim that municipal police is first of all characterized as law enforcement agency. All the abovementioned discrepancies stand for the absence of unified approved definition of municipal police causing synonymical controversy: «municipal police», «urban police», «public order protection units», «local law enforcement units», «local police», «district-funded militia» etc. Methodological basis of municipal police concept identification as a public administration agency through the prism of scientific principles (objectivity, extensiveness, justifiability, evolution and systematicity); methodological approaches (systemic, functional, institutional); research methodology (general – comparison, analysis, synthesis, modeling, generalization, abstraction; philosophical – dialectic, materialistic; general – historical, comparative, synergetic; special – formal-legal, comparative-legal, sociological-legal).