On Jan. 19, the Interior Ministry started recruiting new candidates for the patrol service, which will replace the notoriously corrupt traffic police in Kyiv by July as a part of the new government pledge for comprehensive reform in Ukraine.
“This is the beginning of the Interior Ministry reform,” Eka Zguladze, deputy interior minister said at briefing. “Traffic police will be reorganized and new service which will work differently will be created on its basis.”
The new service will include road, metro and foot patrols working 24 hours a day. They will be helping out residents of the city, answering their questions, but won’t have the right to carry out investigations, she said.
Ukraine’s traffic police currently have a reputation for stopping motorists simply to collect fines in cash for real or imagined violations of traffic laws.
But Ukraine aims to wipe the slate clean.
Ukrainians ages 21-35 with a clean record, secondary or higher education, driver’s license, good command of the Ukrainian language and in good physical condition are eligible to apply by Feb. 6. They will have to undergo general intelligence, medical and psychological tests. Selected candidates will get three months (400 hours) of training, according to Zguladze.
Some 2,000 patrol officers are expected to start working in Kyiv by July and then new system step by step will be launched in other Ukrainian cities, Zguladze said.
Ukraine is following the experience of other countries but its patrol service will be unique, she said. “It will be similar to the patrol service of Georgia, US, France and Norway but it will be a Ukrainian police. Ukrainian citizens will work for it,” she said.
The transition to the new system will be funded mainly by the U.S. government she said but yet refused to disclose the amount of money Ukraine will receive.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected]
