The majority of crime is not detected by the police itself. Its work, if it is to be effective, depends heavily on the people’swillingness to cooperate with the police. The paper compares the degree of such cooperation between the Czech Republic and other European countries that participated on the ESS R 5 research and focuses on factors influencing the cooperation. Education, feelings of safety when walking alone in local areas after dark and satisfaction with police officers’ treatment allplay an important role in explaining people’swillingness to cooperate with the police. Further, results of the analyses show that the Czech Republic and other post -communist countries alike suffer from relatively low legitimacy of the police as well as low degree of public cooperation with this institution. Moreover, the data suggest that perceived legitimacy of the police is considerably influenced by public trust in it and perception of its transparency. However, these seem to be still relatively low in the Czech Republic., Eva Moravcová., and Obsahuje seznam literatury