Notification of a suspected offence in the Polish legal order

Maciej Andrzejewski’s chapter discusses the institution of notifying the authorities of a suspected offence in Polish criminal procedure, situating it within the principle of legality enshrined in Article 10 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which obliges law‑enforcement bodies to initiate and conduct preparatory proceedings and requires the public prosecutor to bring and pursue charges ex officio. The author emphasises that the effectiveness of combating crime depends not only on the autonomous activity of law‑enforcement agencies but also on the cooperation of society, rooted in the ancient institutions of “actio popularis” and “grafé,” today understood as a subjective right of the citizen to access the courts. He analyses the factors shaping the intensity of this cooperation – legal awareness and culture, public perception of law‑enforcement authorities (as instruments of repression or as guarantors of public order), and the perceived level of criminal threat – arguing that the more legitimate these bodies appear, the more actively citizens collaborate with them. In this perspective, the notification of a suspected offence becomes a crucial external source of information for the authorities, particularly in cases involving legal interests of minors, complementing data obtained through the agencies’ own investigative activities.