Drawing on the example of Kosovo, we study the relationship between representation in security sector institutions at the local level and feelings of safety among citizens. Linking OECD data on the ethnic and gender composition of the municipal security sector to survey data on safety perceptions, we first explore the issue for all 38 Kosovar municipalities. In a second step, we select two municipalities as cases in which we study causal patterns in more detail. Theoretically, we expect that a local level security sector that is ‘more representative’ in including ethnic minorities and women should be better equipped to respond to the security needs of all members of society.
