Key Characteristics of the Current Image of a Law Enforcement Officer: Problems of Formation and Perception

Defined are the critical competence characteristics of the current image of a police officer, the main trends in its change and to determine the problems of forming a whole positive image of a law enforcement officer in the conditions of modern Russia. The article shows the relevance and necessity of a positive image of a police officer in the mass consciousness. The author has carried out an empirical study that made it possible to determine the main parameters of the image of a modern police officer. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that in the course of a comparative analysis of the perceptions of a police officer by the internal and external segments of the target image audience, it was possible to establish not only the key image parameters of the police officer that are relevant at the moment, but also to determine the main contradictions in the image of a law enforcement officer and determine their main the reasons. As a result, it is shown that the current image of a police officer, on the one hand, is influenced by the stereotypes that were formed during the perestroika period, on the other, the images and ideas broadcast by the mass media, and on the third, the activities of the police themselves, perceived directly through personal contact. In addition, it was found that the main problem on the way of forming an integral favorable image of a law enforcement officer is the lack of a unified information policy in this area of activity, as well as the unregulated nature of multiple information flows by state structures, one way or another, affecting the perception of the activities of the internal affairs bodies of the mass audience, which ultimately gives rise to a contradictory and largely eclectic image.