Police: Information Openness and Dialogue with the Population (Sociological Aspect)

Introduction. Effective communication between law enforcement agencies and the public is a critical element of ensuring public safety. Despite the active development of digital channels of interaction, significant communication barriers remain, especially in dialogue with the youth audience. The purpose of the study is to assess the quality of communication practices and the level of trust in law enforcement agencies among the population of the city of Saransk. Materials and Methods. An online survey on the Yandex.Forms platform conducted in April 2025 was used as a research tool. The sample was spontaneous, the Internet users of Saransk aged mainly from 18 to 25 years old were interviewed, which accounted for 69% of the sample (n = 121). The analysis methods included descriptive statistics and content analysis of open responses. Results. It was found that 85% of respondents feel safe on the streets of the city, 78% express confidence in the police. The majority (85%) consider it necessary to introduce digital services to increase the transparency of police work, according to 83% of respondents, transparency of police actions is an important aspect of its work. The majority (88%) have no personal experience of interacting with law enforcement agencies over the past three years, which highlights the importance of the information policy of the relevant agencies. Discussion and Conclusion. The correlation between the level of trust of young people in law enforcement agencies and the degree of transparency of their activities, the level of digitalization of services and the quality of communicative interactions has been confirmed. The results of the study can be used to develop practical measures to optimize the communication strategies of law enforcement agencies in the digital environment.