Kompetenzentwicklung der zukünftigen Polizeibeamten für erfolgreiches kommunizieren zwischen den Kulturen

• Būsimų policijos pareigūnų kompetencijos plėtotė siekiant sėkmingo tarpkultūrinio bendravimo
• Development of future police officers’ competence seeking successful intercultural communication

ENThis article deals with development of future police officers’ intercultural competence. The police represent state authority when communicating with citizens. In their everyday activity police officers constantly communicate with different people and, despite different social positions of these people, the police should be regarded as a reliable, just, and professional institution. Not only the situation but also the degree of policeman’s proficiency determines if communication with a citizen is successful. It means that development of intercultural competence is a significant moment when preparing police officers. The aim of this paper is to discuss development of future police officers’ competence seeking successful intercultural communication. The following objectives were raised to reach the aim :1) analyse theoretical aspects of successful intercultural competence 2) reveal the significance of the study subject “Intercultural communication” by developing intercultural competence via self-assessment of future police officers’ knowledge and skills. Self-assessment of intercultural competence development was selected as the research object. Comparative analysis and generalization of scientific literature as well as Likert scale were employed as theoretical methods of the paper. The first part of the paper analyses theoretical aspects of intercultural communication and its development. Intercultural communication is supposed to be regarded as a complex competence encompassing individual skills and capacities obtained, which help successfully cooperate with representatives of other cultures. The model of intercultural communication, combining three competences, namely cognitive, affective, and pragmatic-communication, should be applied as an instrument when describing the construct of intercultural competence and analysing its development.In the second part of the paper the input of the study subject “Intercultural communication“ to future police officers’ development is discussed. A significant difference of mean values between respondents’ self-assessment before and after the course can be observed. One must pay attention to the fact that there are two study programmes in higher education, namely “Police Activity” and “Law and Police Activity”, which prepare police officers. Therefore, it is recommended to search for possibilities to supplement the second study programme with the course on intercultural communication development as well.