Publications

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

01.11.2014

І. Brief Description of the Current Condition of the MIA 1

ІІ. Society Requirements for the Police 3

ІІІ. Strategic Vision for Development of the MIA and the Police 6

IV. Reform Goals 13

V. Activities Aimed at Attaining Reform Goals 14

VІ. Expected Outcomes 30

VII. Resources Needed to Attain Reform Goals 36

Annex 1. Law Enforcement Agencies Reform Principles 37

I. Brief Description of the Current Condition of the MIA

In 2013, law enforcement agencies of Ukraine had a headcount of 261,000 people, including internal troops personnel, cadets and non-uniformed staff. This is 1.5 times as much as the European average level (300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants), and almost twice as much as recommended by the UN (222 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants) With 21,840,000 economically active inhabitants in the country, it would mean that every 83rd employed citizen would draw his or her salary from Ukraine’s MIA.

At the same time, only 3 to 5 per cent of citizens trusted the militia, while after the Euromaidan events this indicator dropped to 0.8 per cent of responders according to the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; at the same time, not more than 3 per cent of the police staff themselves used to trust the government. This extreme lack of trust between government structures and the extremely low confidence of the population in the law enforcement have been caused by systemic deficiencies in the operation of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies.

The determinants include the obsolete structure of the MIA, and the agency-focused governance system keeping the MIA at the stage of a disproportionately large “Police Ministry”. The duplication of functions of various units in this “ministry” is accompanied by the overstated percentage of the management staff and the intra-agency competition among Departments. An imperfect and slow decision making system does not contribute to flexible management of units, efficient response to the situation, and the responsible attitude at the local level to the performance of management duties. The situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern oblasts revealed the inability of the “Police Ministry” to comprehensively respond to public safety threats without coordinated action with units of the Ministry of Emergencies and the State Border Service, or to promptly influence the situation using resources of local directorates.

Over the years of independence, the MIA failed in replacing its militarized operating model inherited from the USSR. This situation especially affected the public order maintenance tactics focused mainly on severe response to mass riots. Accordingly, the personnel training process uses as priority the behaviors more suitable for the military, rather than for the policy. This was most demonstrable during the Euromaidan events: the forced actions by special troops of the police and the internal troops resulted in bodily harm caused to hundreds of participants of a peaceful gathering and journalists. Using its post-Soviet militarized model, the MIA kept on cultivating its image of a monopolistic “crime fighter”, whose success generally did not depend on the community support, while the efficiency was assessed using an obsolete system of quantitative crime prevention indicators. As a result, the MIA received about 195,000 claims from individuals caused by illegitimate acts by law enforcement personnel in 2013. On the average, it was equivalent to one complaint against each appraised officer of law enforcement agencies.

In planning its activities, the MIA has remained under control of political forces as demonstrated by the human resource policies of late, when only people originating from Donetsk Oblast were appointed to the top position in all oblasts. The politicians’ drive for influence on the appointment of “their people” to the MIA resulted in dismissals of over 300 oblast-level top administrators, including 17 commanding officers of the MIA Main Directorate in Lviv Oblast, 15 in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and 13 in Kyiv.

The political impacts are exacerbated by the persistent underfunding of the MIA: this uniformed executive agency is only provided 40 per cent of its budget prescribed by law. At the same time, laws vest the MIA with the right to obtain the rest of funds from individuals and other non-state funding sources. This resulted in existence of a broad range of administrative services provided by the MIA at unreasonably high prices due to the monopoly based on the lack of standards for such services. The lack of efficient anti-corruption measures, the negligence of officials, the extortion of “charitable aid” transformed the Ukrainian police from a body in charge of the protection of administrative service consumers into one of the largest offenders in this field. At least 2 million people have been suffering every year from imperfections of administrative services provided by MIA’s Traffic Inspectorate and Permitting System.

With growing financing issues, the police activities have been more and more focused on self-sustainment and personal enrichment of administrators of all levels by illegitimately seizing assets of other citizens. Furthermore, the system of internal corruption has developed immensely with a range of “tariff rates” covering almost all areas of activity of the employees of law enforcement agencies ranging from granting a leave of absence or a day off to getting a rank, an office or an award.

Labor conditions of the MIA personnel remains to be extremely unsatisfactory. This statement applies to the lack of the proper space, office equipment and even furniture, the lack of the proper social protection of the personnel, and an imperfect labor remuneration system with almost 30 per cent of the take-home pay of subordinates being dependent on the subjective attitude of the management. Deficiencies in management result in a disproportionately high functional workload with 3,000 city inhabitants or 2,200 rural inhabitants per beat officer. The unwarranted practice of working days lasting longer than 12 hours a day, and the inability of most officers to make use of the appropriate days off in a month took roots. Almost one third of officers do not take rest on days off.

The list of systemic deficiencies can be finished off with the agency transparency and community accountability policy, as the MIA is changing its closed and biased attitude toward community relations with extreme slowness. Today, appraisal committees lack community representatives; victims are unable to get properly involved into the progress of the internal investigation of their complaints; the mechanism of mobile IA human rights assurance monitoring groups has been dismantled. The lack of efficient community control mechanisms resulted in the public prosecution offices’ having pursued 11,176 criminal proceedings against IA officers (including 3,301 cruel treatment cases) in 2013.

Since law enforcement agencies in today’s Ukraine should operate, first of all, as services assisting the community to ensure safe and legal well-being in the country, a suggestion is made that the Law Enforcement Agencies Development Strategy be implemented, which calls for the reform of Ukraine’s MIA in line with the European practices and the development of police as a major community security provider.

ІІ. Society Requirements for the Police

The suggested Strategy is focused on meeting the following requirements of the society for the police[1]:

1. Serving needs of both specific individuals and community groups must be a priority for the police.

The police are meant to efficiently respond to requests of specific individuals, maintain ongoing communication with them and inform them about the progress of their cases. No complaint or statement filed would remain non-registered or not considered on time regardless of the applicant’s being eligible for any preferences or, vice versa, restricted in exercising some rights.

At the same time, the police are expected to demonstrate high tolerance toward vulnerable population groups, which are in need to strengthened attention and additional protection of their rights by the police. Vulnerable groups usually include ethnic minorities, migrants, refugee-seekers, physically or mentally handicapped people, individuals with non-conventional sexual orientation, elderly people and children. The police is expected to keep monitoring the needs of these population groups, develop action programs or plans for the provision of additional assistance to them, monitor their efficiency, and act as one of initiators of the process of social adaptation of specific population categories at the national level.

2. Police must be accountable to law, not to the government.

All police decisions must be motivated by law and supported by court, rather than dictated by the government and desires of political parties. Of course, advice, notes of support or protest, declarations and political statements can be considered by police managers while making management decisions, but only as additional arguments (counter-arguments) to requirements of the law underlying the police actions.

One should consider the role and the degree of involvement of the police management into the law development and implementation separately, in order to avoid situations of their potential political bias.

3. Police must protect human rights, especially the rights needed for the free political activity in a democratic society.

Police must implement procedures and regulations making it impossible to carry out arbitrary arrests and apprehensions, and protecting persons in custody against torture and inhuman treatment. The development of the action logic at the time of the protection of peaceful gatherings for the assurance of the freedom of speech and expression by citizens will be yet another line of activity. Police units must implement special training of the personnel in order to protect human rights in activities of law enforcement agencies. Situations of the use of force and physical compulsion must be regulated in detail; most of them must be sanctioned and thoroughly reviewed by the police management together with other instances that control police activities.

4. Actions by the police must be transparent.

Police units must be sufficiently open for the control from outside, including the community control. Major police statistics (headcount, gender balance, budget, etc.) must be accessible to the community, while information requests by citizens and organizations must be considered within a reasonable time frame and, if denied, accompanied by a motivated response. Police must appoint special officers or set up dedicated units in charge of relations with the general public and international organizations. The society must be able to obtain access to the information on police activity planning in general, the implementation of plans, and the results of work without undue effort.

The European Union expansion to Central and Eastern Europe made it necessary for the national governments to reform police (militia) into a professional depoliticized and efficient institution established on the basis of principles of the rule of law, the market economy, and the tolerance toward cultural, religious and ethnic groups. As a result, the range of tasks to be carried out by law enforcement agencies of these countries was expanded to the following areas in accordance with principles of the contemporary police science:

· the establishment of the efficient public control;

· a democratic and efficient system of accountability to the public;

· the partnership with the population within the scope of the community-policing model;

· the high professional level of the personnel; downsizing; development of professional ethics;

· the enhancement of the personnel diversification in order to better reflect ethnic and gender structure of the population;

· the permanent communication with police of other countries.

In most European police systems, the above requirements could be implemented as a result of the reforms pursued on the basis of several guiding principles. There were some national differences in reform principles depending on both the political situation and the degree of readiness of the government structures to reorganize their own activity. However, the generalized principles of law enforcement reforms at a level of related and universal categories are currently as follows:

1. the rule of law;

2. the depoliticization;

3. the demilitarization;

4. the decentralization;

5. the accountability and transparency of operations;

6. the close co-operation with the public and local communities;

7. the professional development of the personnel.

These principles are described in Annex 1.

Strategic Vision for Development of the MIA and the Police

This section examines the vision of a reformed Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the principles of reforms in the internal affairs agencies put into practice.

1. Optimization of the MIA Structure

The MIA shall have a structure that does not make it in any way associated with a “police ministry”, acting as a civil and open Home Office, in which the Police Department is only a constituent part.

The structure of the new MIA may include various departments, however, the main condition for the configuration of the MIA is financial, administrative, and organizational independence of each department (as a separate executive government agency) received as a result of reforms and elaboration of its own development strategy.

The Ministry of the MIA with the central office shall act as a supervisor and coordinator of activities, with a right to govern each of the departments directly only in emergencies. The working relations and subordination between the MIA minister and the department heads shall have the same level of democracy as the relations between the Prime Minister and the ministers in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Along with the democratic principles and independent status of each department, the MIA shall have clear and readily understandable cooperation rules. Such rules, if necessary, shall ensure coordinated operation of different departments in order to address problems at the national level (formation of new units and working groups, detachment of personnel, sequence of actions, and use of resources), as well as ensure working cooperation of regional (territorial) representatives of various departments in their day-to-day operations.

Most MIA resources shall be allocated to the satisfaction of needs of the people at the level of local communities, which minimizes the bureaucratic and administrative costs through implementation of informational and communicational management technologies.

The MIA shall have a unified electronic document management system with modern protection mechanisms, unified databases, a system for current working activity planning, and remote control over the quality of work of specific responsible parties. The ability to work within the electronic document management system is a required professional quality of each MIA officer.

The Police Department shall have the function of crime prevention and protection of public order as the main responsible parties, which makes the district officers and patrol police the main services, concentrating up to 70% of the Police Department personnel. Other units shall include the dispatch centers, general criminal offences detective service, forensic expert service, and information service. At the same time the police is divided into two parts - the administrative police and criminal police - who work in their own areas of competence, without duplicating each other.

Rule of Law

The MIA shall regularly review and update the regulatory framework, taking into account new international documents implemented by Ukraine, European Human Rights Court resolutions, as well as recommendatory documents of international institutions. At the same time, the MIA shall regularly present legislative initiatives aimed for clear coherence of all regulations in the areas of criminal, administrative, labor, civil, and other law regulating the personnel’s activities.

The MIA regulatory framework shall stipulate, with a maximum level of detail, the range of its tasks, functions, and powers, which will reduce the risk of arbitrary actions by law enforcement officers and automatically minimize the risks of law violations by the MIA personnel. At the same time, the actions of the officials shall be spelt out to the maximum extent by developing detailed regulations, guidelines, recommendations, and instructions covering all possible options for the behavior of the personnel in standard and non-standard situations. In order to simplify the application, such regulations shall be combined in a single comprehensive document, using the European countries’ Police Codes of Conduct as an example.

The MIA personnel shall act as an example in the compliance with the laws which it enforces. When performing their functions, the MIA officers shall only be governed by the law, respecting the personal rights of the citizens and not making arbitrary or illegal actions. For this purpose, the MIA regulatory framework shall stipulate several limitations for the personnel, the compliance with which shall ensure: high executive discipline of the officers; devotion to the law enforcement activity and prohibition to engage in business; absence of officers’ interest in receiving gifts or rewards from private individuals or entities; non-disclosure of internal-use information; and restriction for participation in the political life.

Depoliticization

A management system and executive supervision mechanisms shall be developed at the MIA level in order to minimize the possibility of the management’s decisions made under direct influence of political powers or personal political preferences. The decision making by the management shall have such mandatory elements as information gathering, analysis of arguments and counterarguments, and collegiality in the development of possible solutions.

In case of finding the facts or getting justified suspicions that an MIA officer acts in the interests of any political parties, such officer shall be suspended and subjected to internal investigation.

The use of any items or equipment with symbols of any political parties in the MIA units shall be prohibited. The MIA personnel on duty may not express their personal attitude to any political parties or discuss the parties’ policy during service meetings. This provision shall apply to the MIA officers off duty if they are wearing elements of the uniform or identification marks allowing to identify them as MIA officers.

Representatives of political parties may not perform any political activities on the premises of the MIA or invite the personnel as experts or advisors without approval by the MIA minister.

Demilitarization

The structure of the MIA shall not have any military units; all MIA departments shall be civilian services, whose personnel, although partly performing their duty in uniform, shall not have special ranks similar to the military ranks, and shall not use military attributes or symbols. The National Guard and the Border Guard Service, as the most militarized units within the MIA, may only have a status of paramilitary formations.

The MIA shall have a developed system of professional standards of conduct aimed for development of the personnel’s initiative, independent decision making, and readiness to take responsibility for their actions. All rudiments of military discipline and training shall be eliminated.

The physical and firearms training of the personnel shall undergo qualitative changes involving maximum similarity of the training and qualification tests to the actual conditions of duty, simultaneously prioritizing minimum bodily injury to the persons against whom force, special equipment, or service weapons are used.

Decentralization

The territorial units of the MIA shall have the right to independently address the issue of current activity planning, staffing policy, and distribution of the budget received, with full liability for the decisions made to the local community and the MIA management.

The planning of the current activity of territorial units shall be performed based on recommendations sent by the central MIA office, considering the specific aspects of the regional situation and the needs of the local communities.

The state policy in the area of MIA budgeting shall be regulated in such was as to allow the territorial units to use the resources provided by the local self-governance bodies. The procedure of receiving additional revenue to the budget of the territorial units shall involve an anti-corruption supervision mechanism, and the information about additional revenue shall be open to the public.

A part of the public order protection functions shall be transferred to the jurisdiction of the local police to be established by the resolutions of local self-governance bodies and funded at their expense. The activity of the local police shall be supervised by the MIA Police Department and the local self-governance bodies. Creating local police carried out gradually, taking into account the characteristics of each region, which will also provide the opportunity to introduce several alternative models.

6. Accountability and Transparency of Operations

The MIA shall have an information policy that ensures wide multichannel feedback from various groups of citizens (correspondence, personal meetings, social networks, e-mailing, telephone consultations), and allows making sure that the decisions and actions of the law enforcement officers are as transparent and open to the public as possible.

The MIA regulations, published on the Internet resources and continuously updated, shall be freely accessible for the citizens to the extent the documents are open under the current information laws. At the same time, the MIA shall analyze the comments and remarks arriving in relation to certain documents, with further initiation of amendments and improvements thereof.

The MIA shall use the new information technologies, developed, among other purposes, for automated registration of any citizen applications and guaranteed response of the personnel to such applications; for analysis of the citizens’ reports of offenses and forecasting the crime situation; for visualization of such activity and notification of citizens within the Crime Mapping informational platform; establishment of MIA base the national rescue service 112 as part of a pan-European rescue service 112.

The MIA and its territorial units shall annually publish a full report in the main areas of activity, including the plans and results of operation of police departments, the general budget, amounts and structure of costs, profile of the police personnel (by age, gender, education and qualification level), personnel changes, and analysis of the main problems of their activity.

The MIA shall have a developed policy on the quality of law enforcement services, which shall include the minimum standards of public safety, standards of professional conduct of the MIA personnel in various situations, as well as clear and understandable mechanisms to ensure the quality of law enforcement services.

The damage to the citizens due to unprofessional or unlawful actions of the MIA personnel shall be reimbursed at the expense of the guilty parties, or, if such reimbursement is impossible, at the expense of the territorial unit where the guilty parties served.

The MIA shall contribute to the development of community supervision of the law enforcement officers’ actions, and shall view it as one of the effective mechanisms for prevention of corruption among its personnel.

As the main result of the MIA operation, the majority of citizens must be assured that the law enforcement officers: (a) perform law enforcement activities for crime prevention, detection of the committed crimes, and protection of public order in a competent manner; (b) honestly perform their duty and comply with the laws; (c) help common people and treat all persons with respect.

Close Cooperation with the Public and Local Communities

The performance of law enforcement tasks by the personnel and its technical equipment alone without active support from the public shall be recognized as impossible at the level of the MIA. This shall make the main priority of the MIA’s operations to establish cooperation with the citizens exclusively on the basis of partnership relations within the worldwide recognized approach of community policing.

The MIA personnel shall continuously analyze the problems of the local population and separate groups for the planning of service activities and evaluation of its own effectiveness.

The effectiveness of the MIA operations shall be measured using a system of new criteria, the most important of which shall be: quality of response to the reports from the public, quality of the relations between the citizens and the MIA officers, activity of the police personnel in the resolution of current problems of the neighborhood residents, variety of actions for improvement of the law and order, intensity of working connections with the self-governance bodies, government agencies, and mass media.

The MIA shall ensure regular personnel training on the work with vulnerable groups of the population, prevention of human trafficking, and prevention of hate crimes and minority discrimination.

Staffing Policy, Personnel Professional Development

The MIA shall perform gradual personnel layoffs by redistributing a part of the officers among other ministries and agencies, as well as by dismissing them with preliminary provision of services for additional professional training.

The MIA shall have the new criteria and procedures for personnel selection. In particular, in addition to the physical qualities of a job candidate, it shall assess their mental abilities, communicative skills, and motivation. All testing stages shall be recorded on video in the presence of community representatives. The service candidates shall be selected based on a rating system.

The MIA shall provide equal work opportunities for men and women on the foundations of gender equality, and shall develop anti-discrimination mechanisms for female career growth.

All vacancies shall be announced among the personnel with simultaneous creation of conditions for the candidates’ unobstructed access to participation in the selection competition. In order to be appointed to the positions of territorial unit heads, the candidates shall pass specially developed tests and be interviewed by an integrated committee involving the representatives of the local governance bodies and the community.

The MIA officers shall have increased salaries and social benefits (free medical insurance, zero interest long-term loans), which shall not depend on subjective relations among the personnel.

The MIA shall have a system of corporate ethics and prevention of professional deformation, providing mandatory and regular psychological care to the personnel in order to prevent the negative phenomena, as well as for conflict free performance of personal, corporate, and national interests. The basic ethical principles of the law enforcement activity shall be the respect of the other persons; friendliness; effectiveness and professionalism; adherence to the principles of lawfulness and rule of law; responsibility; care for others; honesty to themselves and other people; dedicated service to the society.

The MIA’s institutional training system shall be built on a step principle and primarily focused on the provision of an initial level of knowledge aimed at the professionally important capabilities and skills in specific situations. The institutional training facilities shall be colleges operating within the civilian universities and providing the education services for initial training and skills improvement, as well as for Bachelor degree education (for middle-level management personnel). The top-level management personnel shall be trained at the MIA academy.

The MIA units shall have an effective system of apprenticeship, professional level improvement, and internal supervision stipulated in clear and understandable disciplinary procedures. The internal supervision shall include at least technical video surveillance over the personnel during the working hours, regular tests for professional incorruptibility, and risk of narcotics use.

IV. Reform Goals

Principles of the Reform	Reform Goals
MIA structure optimization	1.1	Developing the MIA into a system of standalone executive agencies
	1.2	A clear division of responsibilities between the Ministry of Interior services, excluding duplication
	1.3	Personnel reallocation and downsizing
	1.4	Provision of proper funding
	1.5	Attainment of the flexible response to security and public order challenges
Rule of law	2.1	Conformity of the regulatory framework with requirements of law
	2.2	Conformity of the procedures with requirements of law
	2.3	Assurance of the legality of actions taken by personnel
Depoliticization	3.1	Minimization of the political influence on activities of the personnel
Depoliticization	3.2	Assurance of the professional approach toward the strategic development
Demilitarization	4.1	Creating a civil model of operation and relations within personnel
Demilitarization		Uniformed staff downsizing
Decentralization	5.1	Expanding autonomy of regional and local (“territorial”) units
Decentralization	5.2	Expansion of the role of local authorities in activities of MIA units
Accountability and transparency of operations	6.1	Development of a quality multi-level reporting and public accountability system
	6.2	Attainment of comprehensible and foreseeable operation of the MIA
	6.3	Development of a law enforcement service provision quality policy
	6.4	Expansion of the public control role
Close co-operation with the public and local communities	7.1	Development of a service-based operating model focused on solving issues faced by the community
Close co-operation with the public and local communities	7.2	Implementation of community-policing principles in the field of the maintenance of public order
Human resource policy, personnel professionalization	8.1	Development of new personnel selection criteria and procedures
	8.2	Social protection to the personnel
	8.3	Improvement of the system of internal control over actions of the personnel
	8.4	Reform of the professional development system

V. Activities Aimed at Attaining Reform Goals

	Reform Goals	PRIORITY MEASURES	LONG-TERM MEASURES
1.1	Developing the MIA into a system of standalone executive agencies	Develop the MIA structure, determine the area of responsibility, the scope of powers and the functional workload of each service and department of the MIA	Ensure financial and organizational/management autonomy of services (as specific executive agencies)
		Record the strategy/concept and the “road-map” of the reform (with its objectives, goals, lines and timing of operation, expected outcomes, and quality indicators) at a legislative level	Reform services being a part of the MIA, and develop dedicated development strategies for them
		Record service functions and the MIA model in laws, specify the headcount, tasks and powers of MIA services
		Assign offense prevention and public order maintenance functions to the National Police Service as the major service provider. The beat inspector and patrol police services would concentrate up to 70 per cent of the Service personnel as a result. Other units include the control rooms, the detective service tasked with the detection of general criminal offenses, information and logistics services
1.2	A clear division of responsibilities between the Ministry of Interior services, excluding duplication	Analysis of functions that perform each service unit and MIA	Development of the mechanisms and algorithms for interaction between departments within an integrated management model
		Development and statutory of the functional and management revised model for each unit
1.3	Personnel reallocation and downsizing	Analyze and revise the functional workload of the personnel
		Downsize bureaucratic apparatus
		Create a system for the re-training of officers to be downsized into other occupations	Bring the headcount of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies in line with international standards: 222 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants as recommended by the U.N.; 300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants in line with the European practices.
		Take away inappropriate functions from the State Traffic Inspectorate (vehicle registration, driving license issue)
		Reform the beat officer service by making it a key service in the MIA, provide better support to activities of beat inspectors, determine a clear range of duties, develop new forms of community work at the beat level
		Hand over the GUBOZ (Main Organized Crime Suppression Directorate) to the Security Service of Ukraine (about 4,800 people)	Reassign the forensics service (to the Ministry of Justice) in order to ensure the objectivity of forensic expert appraisals.
		Hand over the DDSBEZ (Economic Crime Suppression State Service Department) to the State Fiscal Service (about 9,500 people).	Place the National Guard (27,000 people) under the jurisdiction of the Defense Minister
		Hand over personnel of the UBNON (Illegal Traffic in Drugs Suppression Directorate) to the Drugs Control State Service (about 3,500 people)	Hand over some investigators to the National Bureau of Investigation (about 12,000 people)
		Set up a universal SWAT-type (USA) unit instead of the existing Berkut, Sokol, Grifon, Skorpion, Omega and Titan units at the level of 40 to 60 officers per oblast (1,500 people at the national level)	Downsize the Children Criminal Militia Department with the partial hand-over of the personnel to juvenile agencies and services (about 3,000 people)
		Liquidate the veterinary militia, because similar functions are carried out by the Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service	Remove the State Guards Service from the MIA and transform it into a privately owned structure (about 48,000 people)
		Reorganize transport militia
		Merge patrol service and the State Traffic Inspectorate to establish a mobile patrol service. As an option, the State Traffic Policy can be kept as a specific structural unit solely to patrol national highways	Reform the Cybercrime Suppression Unit by focusing its activities on preventing and suppressing criminal offenses associated with cyber-attacks and tampering with information systems by eliminating a number of areas of work, such as the suppression of the gambling business and fraud and legalization of proceeds from the above criminal offenses, and the intellectual property crimes.
1.4	Provision of proper funding	Audit the materiel/technical and financial support to Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies to locate systemic issues for the future development of the MIA budget and the protection of rights of employees of the law enforcement agencies
		Determine an acceptable reform “price” for both the internal affairs system and the public
		Minimize expenses on bureaucratic needs and management staff by implementing information/communication management technologies
		Create a universal electronic document exchange system with contemporary protection mechanisms, unified databases, a system of planning of the ongoing work, and the remote control over activities of specific officers
1.5	Attainment of the flexible response to security and public order challenges	Specify clear and understandable rules of the interaction of various services for the solution of issues at the national level (setting up new units and task forces, secondment of personnel, sequence of actions and resource utilization), and ensure working interaction among regional (territorial) representatives of various services in their day-to-day work	Establish a brand new unit in the MIA to carry out the strategic analysis of operative data in order to influence processes of decision making; train and develop the relevant staff.
2.1	Conformity of the regulatory framework with requirements of law	Revising and updating the regulatory framework on the basis of new international documents implemented by Ukraine, judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and recommendations of international institutions	Develop legislative initiatives focused on establishing a clear co-ordination of all legal norms in the fields of criminal, administrative, employment, civil and other law which govern activities of the personnel
2.2	Conformity of the procedures with requirements of law	Introduce queue management terminals in front offices, and set up a single automated system for all visitors to an internal affairs agency	Equip specialized interrogation rooms (soundproof walls, stationary audio and video recording facilities). Perform interrogation and inquests in specially equipped rooms only
		Implement a universal custody record containing information about a person in custody at all stages (apprehension, transfer, status change, etc.)	Permit individuals placed into temporary detainment centers to use phones (maybe, landline only, according to a time schedule, subject to monitoring)
		Introduce the video recording of the first interrogation of a person in custody
		Introduce obligatory independent medical examination of all apprehended and delivered persons (to eliminate eventual charges against personnel and the risk of bodily injuries)
		Implement individual packages for the storage of personal belongings of persons in custody
		Place free legal aid posters in units of law enforcement agencies
2.3	Assurance of the legality of actions taken by personnel	Regulate actions of officers to the maximum extent possible by developing detailed regulations covering all potential personnel behavior options in standard and non-standard situations to automatically minimize the risk of the violation of law by the MIA personnel	Specify a number of restrictions for the personnel in MIA regulations to ensure: a high level of implementation standards on the part of the personnel; the commitment to the law enforcement work and the impossibility of running business; the lack of interest of the personnel in receiving gifts and rewards from private individuals; non-disclosure of the official information; restrictions upon the participation in politics
3.1	Minimization of the political influence on activities of the personnel	Delineate areas of the political and specialist control at the MIA level to ensure the stability of the professional staff of law enforcement agencies Specify positions of the MIA minister and his or her deputies as political	Develop mechanisms to rule out the appointment of individuals, who engaged into politics, as top managers of MIA services
		Develop a management system and control mechanisms to minimize the decision making by the top management under the influence of political forces or own political preferences. The decision making by the top management must contain obligatory elements, such as information gathering, argumentation and counter-argumentation analysis, discussion, and collective development of decision options
3.2	Assurance of the professional approach toward the strategic development	Ensure appointment of a highly professional police specialist with at least 20 years of police service experience, proper educational level and management experience as the top manager of the National Police Service. The appointment shall be for a 4-year term with a possible extension. The chief of police would not resign automatically in case of the change in government or the replacement of a minister of internal affairs.	Remove military units from the MIA; vesting all MIA services with a status of civil services, whose personnel, while uniformed on service, does not have special ranks similar to the military, and does not use military-style attributes or symbols
4.1	Creating a civil model of operation and relations within personnel	Undertake a quality change in physical and weapons training of the personnel to bring training and tests to the real conditions of service as much as possible with the simultaneous priority of causing minimal injuries to individuals, against whom physical force, special equipment or service guns are applied.	Vest the National Guard and the Border Service (as the most militarized units of the MIA) with the status of paramilitary formations
		Employ graduates of civilian institutions on a broad scale	Develop a system of professional standards of conduct focused on developing initiative and independence in decision making, and the readiness to accept responsibility for own deeds in the personnel
			Liquidate all vestiges of the military discipline and training
	Uniformed staff downsizing		Decommission (cancel special ranks of) officers of law enforcement agencies on the basis of the principle that “The uniform and service guns are only for those who are directly involved into the maintenance of public order” (patrol service, beat inspectors, the State Traffic Inspectorate, detectives)
5.1	Expanding autonomy of regional and local (“territorial”) units	Develop mechanisms of the independent decision making on the planning of current activities, human resource policy, and budget allocation, including mechanisms of accountability to the local community and the management of the MIA	Set up special bodies in local authorities to deal with funding and strategic development of the local police (similar to police authorities in the UK)
5.2	Expansion of the role of local authorities in activities of MIA units	Plan day-to-day activities of territorial units taking into consideration specific features of the situation in regions and needs of local communities	Develop MIA budgeting mechanisms to enable territorial units to make use of resources granted by local self-government bodies. The procedure of the obtainment of additional proceeds to budgets of territorial units calls for an anti-corruption control mechanism, while the information about additional proceeds shall be open to the public.
5.2		Publish complete reports on the major lines of activity, including plans and performance results of police units, the total budget, the amount and the structure of expenses, the profiles of the police personnel (by age, gender, education and qualification level), HR changes, the analysis of major operating issues	Develop models and mechanisms of the implementation of the municipal police to be established and financed by decisions of local self-government bodies. The local police activities shall be controlled by MIA’s National Police Service, and local self-government bodies
6.1	Development of a quality multi-level reporting and public accountability system	Reorganize electronic access to the regulatory framework of law enforcement agencies: the MIA regulatory framework published on the Internet and kept up to date should be free in terms of access of individuals to non-classified documents in accordance with the applicable information legislation	Organize ongoing analysis of comments and complaints regarding specific regulations in order to initiate changes and improvements
		Implement broad-scale multi-channel feedback system to deal with various categories of individuals (correspondence, personal reception, social networks, e-mailing, phone consultations)	Implement the procedure of the compensation for losses caused to individuals by unprofessional or illegitimate actions of the MIA personnel at the expense of guilty parties, or, should this not be possible, at the expense of the budget of the territorial unit, where parties at fault have served.
		Improve “Your Beat Officer” GIS system to offer access to personal details of beat officers and the feedback in respect of problems prevailing within the beat area
		Introduce an open and interactive resource developed, inter alia, to: - carry out automated registration of any petitions from individuals and guarantee response to such petitions by the personnel; - analyze notices of offenses received from individuals; - familiarize individuals with non-classified criminal statistics; - provide real-time information on the localization, nature and other important information about all the violations registered by law enforcement agencies (crime mapping);
6.2	Attainment of comprehensible and foreseeable operation of the MIA	Introduce obligatory marking to simplify identification of MIA officers for all types of the uniform (e.g, individual chevrons on sleeve or breast, individual numbers on helmets, individual badges with the name and position)	Equip all patrol officers with portable video recorders in the breast area
6.3	Development of a law enforcement service provision quality policy	Introduce a system for the cashless payment of penalties (via card terminals)	Develop a law enforcement service quality policy setting out minimum standards of assurance of the safety of individuals, professional response standards for the MIA personnel in various situations, clear and understandable mechanisms of law enforcement service quality assurance.
6.4	Expansion of the public control role	Include representatives of the local community, NGOs, local self-government bodies into personnel and examination commissions reviewing candidates to regional-level management positions	Regularly evaluate militia activities and the crime rate using opinion polls (similar to the UK Crime Survey)
		Involve independent public into the investigation of instances of torture, cruel and inhumane treatment in the militia
		Support the establishment of public monitoring groups (vested with the right to verify grounds for the apprehension of a specific person and conditions of keeping in a unit of law enforcement agencies, etc.)
7.1	Development of a service-based operating model focused on solving issues faced by the community	Recognize at the state level that because of objective factors the MIA is unable to control crime rate and enjoy a high clearance rate without active support by the community, who, however, would only co-operate on the basis of openness, transparency and partnership	Implement new criteria for the assessment of the MIA operating efficiency, including the most important criteria, such as: the quality of response to reports from the community, the quality of relations between the community and the MIA personnel, the activity of the police personnel in solving pressing issues of inhabitants of the area, the diversity of law enforcement measures, the intensity of working relations with local self-government bodies, state authorities and mass media
		Re-focus the State Traffic Inspectorate on reducing the accident rate on roads, and prevention
		Make provisions for the 24/7 reception of individuals by the management of territorial units (city and raion units) in respect of deficiencies in the work of law enforcement agencies
7.2	Implementation of community-policing principles in the field of the maintenance of public order	Set up neighborhood watch groups and volunteer social support groups (e.g., to work with teens and dysfunctional families), organize community meetings at beats, and involve inhabitants into co-operation	Implement community-policing ideology and models
7.2		Nominate officers in local MIA directorates to be in charge of relations with the local community or, if necessary, officers in charge of relations with specific local communities. Their work efficiency would be determined taking into account opinions of specific local communities	Set up a public police academy (a permanent course for individuals to describe the day-to-day militia work and make it possible to observe equipment, premises, procedures and staff from a closer distance)
8.1	Development of new personnel selection criteria and procedures	Implement new quality criteria and procedures for the selection of service candidates. For instance, they should include the following in addition to physical qualities: the intellectual qualities, the motivation and self-control specifics; the prudence and the awareness of own strengths and weaknesses; the ability to understand feelings of others and to influence them; the ability to develop and maintain working relations; the assurance of own abilities, the ability to listen and communicate, the ability to take initiative and maintain optimistic attitude with colleagues; the ability to work in a team; the ability to assimilate new knowledge and skills	Ensure video recording of all stages of examinations undergone by the personnel and service candidates in the presence of representatives of public
		Communicate all vacancies to the personnel and, at the same time, create conditions for the obstacle-free access of candidates to the competition	Create equal working conditions for men and women taking into account gender equality principles; develop anti-discrimination employment and career development mechanisms
		Develop rating-based service testing and selection procedures	Develop a two-stage competitive selection procedure for regional-level management candidates calling for the assessment of the general competence and the competence in specific areas. The general competence assessment should evaluate qualities, such as the knowledge of professional and ethical standards; communication skills; personal motivation; the ability to make necessary decisions; the creativeness and the openness for innovations. The special qualities assessment should cover the leadership qualities of the candidate, their ability to manage personnel and take care of the professional development of their subordinates, their day-to-day activity planning skills, elements of strategic thinking, tolerance toward the implementation of a gender and ethnically-balanced HR policy
8.2	Social protection to the personnel	Record social preferences by law (such as the free medical insurance, interest-free long-term loans), so that the enjoyment thereof would not depend on subjective relations among the personnel	Modify pay structure from a 3-component system (salary, time-in-grade, bonuses) to a 2-component system (salary + time-in-grade) to eliminate the influence of subjective factors on the pay level, and strengthen independence of the personnel from the management and corruption arrangements
8.2	Social protection to the personnel	Introduce term contract work (for some employee categories during the transitional period)	Test the secondary employment mechanisms to enable officers to have a legitimate source of income during the off-service time, and co-ordinate the demand of population for such services
8.3	Improvement of the system of internal control over actions of the personnel	Re-appraise staff regularly (with the modified appraisal criteria) with the involvement of independent community representatives in appraisal commissions and the use of open responses from inhabitants of the area	Introduce a corporate ethics and professional deformation prevention system, a system of psychological assistance to the personnel for the prevention of negative phenomena, and the conflict-free satisfaction of personal, corporate and state interests. Major ethical principles for law enforcement activities include the respect for other people; benevolence; efficiency and professionalism; compliance with principles of legality and rule of law; accountability; care for others; being honest to oneself and others; dedicated service to the community
		Implement a number of anti-corruption and anti-defamation restrictions for the MIA personnel (off-hours visits to places, where violations of the law take place; prohibition of the purchase of alcoholic beverages by employees of law enforcement agencies wearing uniform or some elements thereof, etc.)	Introduce penalties as a disciplinary punishment: up to 15 non-taxable individual minimum income amounts, if levied by a unit head; up to 30 non-taxable individual minimum income amounts, if levied by a head of service or the minister
		Install video recording systems: - in Traffic Inspectorate cars; - in internal affairs units; - in public areas, etc.	Reform internal affairs units taking the prevention of offenses as a priority
			Introduce regular integrity, professional probity and drug abstention checks for the personnel
8.4	Reform of the professional development system	Develop a modern European MIA education model focused mostly on developing the initial knowledge level with the focus on the provision of professionally important skills in specific situations	Ensure gradual transformation of MIA education establishments. At the first stage, internal-affairs universities would be transformed into civilian education establishments subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Science with MIA colleges operating inside of them; at the second stage, the MIA colleges would be vested with the autonomous status
		Develop a model of MIA colleges as major educational establishments providing initial training and qualification development educational services, and the attainment of the Bachelor education level (by the medium-level management)	Reform activities of the MIA Academy, which trains top managers of all services being a part of the MIA
		Regularly train the personnel in dealing with vulnerable population categories, prevention of human trafficking, prevention of hate crimes and the discrimination of minorities.

VІ. Expected Outcomes

Year 2014

A reform strategy (concept) defining areas of responsibility, structures and service functions of the MIA, and the headcount of major services was developed.

The materiel/technical and financial support to Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies was audited to locate systemic issues for the future development of the MIA budget and the protection of rights of the personnel.

Measures were initiated for the re-training of officers to be downsized into other occupations.

Terms of reference were developed for creating a universal electronic document exchange system with contemporary protection mechanisms, unified databases, a system of planning of the ongoing work, and the remote control over activities of specific officers.

Additional measures were implemented to protect rights of detainees and arrestees (obligatory independent medical examination, individual packages for personal belongings, permission for the controlled use of telephone, timely receipt of information about free legal aid)

Publications of reports by MIA, GUMVS and UMVS on the major lines of activity, including plans and performance results of units, the total budget, the amount and the structure of expenses, the profiles of the police personnel (by age, gender, education and qualification level), HR changes, the analysis of major operating issues were implemented in practice.

MIA transparency policy program in the field of community relations was developed.

Obligatory marking was introduced to simplify identification of MIA officers for all types of the uniform.

Policies on the participation of representatives of the local community, NGOs, local self-government bodies in the work of personnel and examination commissions reviewing candidates to regional-level management positions were developed.

Provisions were made for the 24/7 reception of individuals by the management of territorial units (city and raion units) in respect of deficiencies in the work of law enforcement agencies.

The communication of all vacancies to the personnel with the simultaneous provision of conditions for the obstacle-free access of candidates to the competition were implemented into practice.

Years 2015 to 2016

The strategy and the “road-map” of the reform (with its objectives, goals, lines and timing of operation, expected outcomes, and quality indicators) were recorded at a legislative level.

A National Police Service Model and a draft law vesting it with functions of offense prevention and public order maintenance functions as the major service provider were developed. The beat inspector and patrol police services concentrate up to 70 per cent of the Service personnel as a result.

Novel approaches toward the nature, forms and methods of the work of beat inspectors, their workload and materiel provision allowances were developed.

A work plan and draft laws on the reallocation and downsizing of the headcount by means of the reform of services and bureaucracy were prepared; they call for the transfer of powers and personnel of GUBOZ, DDSBEZ, and UBNON to other executive agencies.

A universal SWAT-like unit was set up and recorded in laws instead of the existing Berkut, Sokol, Grifon, Skorpion, Omega and Titan units at the level of 40 to 60 officers per oblast (1,500 people at the national level).

The patrol service and the State Traffic Inspectorate were merged to establish a mobile patrol service.

A universal electronic document exchange system was implemented with contemporary protection mechanisms, unified databases, a system of planning of the ongoing work, and the remote control over activities of specific officers.

Information technologies were implemented, and a radically new analytical unit was set up in the MIA to carry out multi-factor analysis of operative data, support strategic decision-making, and plan activities of the MIA.

A system of detailed restrictions, professional conduct algorithms in case of standard and non-standard situations were developed and adopted.

The video-recording of the first interrogation of a person in custody and a universal custody record containing information about a person in custody at all stages (apprehension, transfer, status change, etc.) were implemented.

A management model and management procedures were developed to delimit areas of political and specialist management at the MIA level, and to minimize the decision making by the top management under the influence of political forces or own political preferences.

A model calling for the appointment of a highly professional police specialist with at least 20 years of police service experience, proper educational level and management experience as the top manager of the National Police Service for 4 years with the right to extension was implemented.

Novel standards of physical and weapons training of the personnel were implemented to bring training and tests to the real conditions of service as much as possible with the simultaneous priority of causing minimal injuries to individuals, against whom physical force, special equipment or service guns are applied.

Development of procedures and regulations for the cancellation of special ranks of officers of law enforcement agencies on the basis of the principle that “The uniform and service guns are only for those who are directly involved into the maintenance of public order”.

Mechanisms of the independent decision making on the planning of current activities (taking into account specifics of the regional situation and needs of local communities), human resource policy, and budget allocation, including mechanisms of accountability to the local community and the management of the MIA, were developed.

The electronic access was reorganized to the regulatory framework of law enforcement agencies; it is freely accessible by individuals in terms of access to non-classified documents; a broad multi-channeled feedback with various categories of individuals is secured on the basis of open-access interactive GIS resources.

A law enforcement service quality policy setting out minimum standards of assurance of the safety of individuals, professional response standards for the MIA personnel in various situations, clear and understandable mechanisms of law enforcement service quality assurance was developed.

The interaction with public monitoring groups (vested with the right to verify grounds for the apprehension of a specific person and conditions of keeping in a unit of law enforcement agencies, etc.) was implemented into practice.

New criteria were implemented for the assessment of the MIA operating efficiency, including the most important criteria, such as: the quality of response to reports from the community, the quality of relations between the community and the MIA personnel, the activity of the police personnel in solving pressing issues of inhabitants of the area, the diversity of law enforcement measures, the intensity of working relations with local self-government bodies, state authorities and mass media

Novel mechanisms of setting up neighborhood watch groups and volunteer social support groups (e.g., to work with teens and dysfunctional families) were implemented.

Officers were nominated in local MIA directorates to be in charge of relations with the local community or, if necessary, relations with specific local communities.

New quality criteria and procedures were developed for the selection of service candidates. For instance, they should include the following in addition to physical qualities: the intellectual qualities, the motivation and self-control specifics; the prudence and the awareness of own strengths and weaknesses; the ability to understand feelings of others and to influence them; the ability to develop and maintain working relations; the assurance of own abilities, the ability to listen and communicate, the ability to take initiative and maintain optimistic attitude with colleagues; the ability to work in a team; the ability to assimilate new knowledge and skills.

Rating-based service testing and selection procedures were developed.

The regulatory framework were developed together with mechanisms of the transformation of the pay structure from a 3-component system (salary, time-in-grade, bonuses) to a 2-component system (salary + time-in-grade) to eliminate the influence of subjective factors on the pay level, and strengthen independence of the personnel from the management and corruption arrangements.

Video-recording systems were installed in cars of the State Traffic Inspectorate, units of law enforcement agencies and public areas.

A modern European MIA education step-by-step model was developed with colleges as a fundamental educational establishment.

Years 2016 to 2018

A new MIA model was developed based on a system of standalone executive agencies.

Clear and understandable rules of the interaction of various services were developed to solve issues at the national and regional levels.

Expenses on bureaucratic needs and management office were reduced as a result of the implementation of information/communication management technologies and the audit of the availability of materiel/technical facilities and funds in law enforcement agencies of Ukraine.

MIA budgeting approaches providing for the proper funding were developed.

The reallocation and downsizing of the personnel was completed on the basis of European practices (300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants).

An appropriate level of the flexible response to safety and order challenges was attained as a result of the improved management system (the strategic analysis of operative data, the optimization of the decision-making process, the personnel training).

Procedures of the regular evaluation of MIA activities and the crime rate using opinion polls were implemented.

The community-policing ideology and model were implemented in the field of community relations; a public police academy was set up.

A personnel secondary employment mechanism model was tested.

A system of corporate ethics, the prevention of the professional deformation, and the psychological assistance to the personnel was implemented.

Penalties were introduced as a disciplinary punishment: up to 15 non-taxable individual minimum income amounts, if levied by a unit head; up to 30 non-taxable individual minimum income amounts, if levied by a head of service or the minister

Internal affairs units were reformed with the prevention of violations as a priority; regular integrity, professional probity and drug abstention checks for the personnel were implemented.

A gradual transformation of MIA education establishments was ensured.

Activities of the MIA Academy, which trains top managers of all services being a part of the MIA, were reformed.

Reform Goals	Sequence of Implementation
Reform Goals	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Developing the MIA into a system of standalone executive agencies
Personnel reallocation and downsizing
Provision of proper funding
Attainment of the flexible response to security and public order challenges
Conformity of the regulatory framework and procedures with requirements of law
Assurance of the legality of actions taken by personnel
Minimization of the political influence on activities of the personnel
Assurance of the professional approach toward the strategic development
Creating a civil model of operation and relations within personnel
Uniformed staff downsizing
Expanding autonomy of regional and local (“territorial”) units
Expansion of the role of local authorities in activities of MIA units
Development of a quality multi-level reporting and public accountability system
Attainment of comprehensible and foreseeable operation of the MIA
Development of a law enforcement service provision quality policy
Expansion of the public control role
Development of a service-based operating model focused on solving issues faced by the community
Implementation of community-policing principles in the field of the maintenance of public order
Development of new personnel selection criteria and procedures
Social protection to the personnel
Improvement of the system of internal control over actions of the personnel
Reform of the professional development system

VII. Resources Needed to Attain Reform Goals

Measures to implement reforms in the years 2014-2015, the Interior Ministry will be made within the allocated budget with the participation of the human rights organizations and the support of international charitable institutions and support of international organizations.

In order to estimate the needed resources in 2016-2018, it is necessary to engage into strategic planning within the scope of the Internal Affairs Agencies Development Strategy adopted in the legislative. The following parameters will have to be determined as a result of this strategic planning process: the costs to be covered by the current funding volumes; the costs to be covered by additional funds from the budget; the costs to be covered with the assistance from international funds.

Annex 1.

Law Enforcement Agencies Reform Principles

1. Rule of Law

While exercising their functions, the law enforcement agencies must act only on the basis of the law, protect personal rights of individuals, and not perpetrate abuse or unlawful acts. This is the major principle for a law-based state and activities of uniformed structures in a democracy. The rule of law secured in this manner in activities of law enforcement agencies must be focused not only on what is being done, but also on how it is being done.

It also means that those, who create, construe or enforce law, must comply with law themselves. The personnel of law enforcement agencies are expected to set an example of following laws enforced by them. In their day-to-day activities, the police personnel must meet, for instance, the following requirements:

the absolute compliance with law while performing official duties;
the respect for personal dignity, and the protection of human rights;
the lack of bias, the openness and co-operation; the personal integrity;
the use of force in a strict proportion to the imminent threat, and only if it is clearly necessary;
the assurance of confidentiality;
the complete waiver of torture, cruel and inhumane treatment;
the protection of health of persons in custody;
the refusal to be implicated into any acts of corruption;
the respect for requirements of laws and statutes; the resistance to any attempts of their violation;

10. the personal responsibility for own deeds. [2]

International documents implemented by the state in accordance with the established procedure, and decisions of international organizations acceded to by the state (the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, etc.) play the prominent role in setting out national legal requirements for acts of law enforcers. While performing their duties, law enforcement officers must comply with international human rights standards, respect and protect human dignity (and the national legislation must contain appropriate provisions to that effect).

Provisions of such documents define police as a state service to be established in accordance with the law and tasked with maintaining and protecting public order. The police duties (in addition to protecting society against violence, robbery and illegal acts) must also include the provision of services and assistance to individuals being in need of immediate assistance due to personal, economic, social and other emergencies. Police, like all institutions of the criminal justice system, must represent the society as a whole; it must be answerable and accountable to the society. On this basis, actions of police officials may be inspected by the ministry, the prosecutor office, the court, the ombudsman, a citizen committee, an association of such bodies, or by any other police oversight agency.

The principle of the rule of law also calls for recording in legislative acts a spectrum of objectives, functions and powers detailed as much as possible in order to reduce the risk of abuse of discretionary powers by law enforcers and, as a result, to minimize the risk of the violation of the law. The last statement is especially important for the regulatory framework governing the activities of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies. It is characterized by an extreme diversity of legislative, inter-agency and agency provisions with the balance shifted toward the internal agency procedures; in practice, this results in contradictions between laws and bylaws governing activities of the personnel.

The experience of the European countries has demonstrated the efficiency of the regulation of activities of officers to the maximum extent possible by developing detailed regulations, guidelines and recommendations covering all potential personnel behavior options under standard and non-standard situations. Merging documents, such as the Law of Ukraine “On Militia”, the Service Policy, the Disciplinary and Drill Regulations, and a number of agency-level orders into a single comprehensive document (similar to European Police Codes of Conduct) to set out official behavior rules for the personnel and disciplinary regulation systems can also be a promising approach.

2. Depoliticization

If one analyzes activities of police agencies of various countries, one can hardly provide an example of complete independence of law enforcement agencies from politics (“complete depoliticization”). The most overt methods of manipulation include attempts by political leaders to force police to carry out specific tasks not envisaged by law and not supported by legitimate decisions of state authorities. Other overt methods include the establishment or the liquidation of specific police forces for these leaders to attain their political or personal goals. Another example is the trend of appointment of police managers expected to show political or group loyalty to specific political parties or civic groups.

The process of regulation of the ethnic, gender or religious composition of the police is another example of the manipulation, because the personnel quality always reflects political trends of governments. Numerous examples of incessant changes in police laws, when new political leaders seize power, revisions of priorities and strategies of reform of law enforcement agencies, changes in approaches toward the personnel training are the further veiled methods of manipulation.

The above examples are, unfortunately, pretty natural, because police has always been a part of politics. The police work is an integral element of the domestic politicking; new models of policing come into effect and become recorded in the national legislation via political processes. In other words, the reform of law enforcement agencies is always a political process. While talking about depoliticizing law enforcement agencies, we must be aware that the idea is not to make them absolutely independent from politics, which is not possible even in theory, but to minimize the political influence on practices of law enforcement agencies.

Ways of such minimization can include prohibiting officers of law enforcement agencies from political party membership and from wearing political badges and symbols; prohibiting the political party activities on the police premises, prohibiting the discussion of political issues at official meetings; restricting the provision of support by the police personnel to political parties.

A different approach is pursued, for instance, in Hungary and Slovenia in the form of developing a management model with the police being vested with an autonomous status within the structure of the ministry of interior; in this case, the ministry is headed by a politician appointed by the government, while the chief of police is a highly professional policing specialist, who does not resign automatically upon a change of government or replacement of the minister of interior. Under this model, the Ministry carries out the strategic planning, overall control and co-ordination functions, while the police is tasked with purely specific functions of the protection of rights of citizens and the crime prevention. The minister is only able to influence police activities by means of regulations, by issuing instructions in specific situations, and only via the chief of national police.

Thus, the idea of the depoliticization principle is to require national governments to develop efficient mechanisms of assurance of the immunity and protection of law enforcement agencies from the possible pressure from political structures, and to minimize the negative impact of political factors on the policing efficiency.

The impact of political factors on activities of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies has been most evident in the criteria used by the state to evaluate activities of the law enforcement. The Soviet doctrine, which required employees in any sector to confirm irresistible strengths of the socialist regime, has engrained the indicators of registered and solved crimes as major performance criteria in the work of law enforcement agencies for a long time. Demonstrably, no attention was paid to numerous service violations committed solely to maintain the crime clearance rate at an unnaturally high level.

After 1991 and the depoliticization of the law enforcement agencies, the crime clearance rate indicator was not used for the foreign policy needs anymore; it was used internally to maintain image of the strong executive in the eyes of own people. Until recently, members of the political elite quite reasonably believed that the high performance indicators of law enforcement agencies were their political capital and secured the popular trust.

Today, everyone is gradually realizing that the prominence of the government in the field of crime suppression depends not so much on crime clearance rates, as on the trust in the militia (police) as a defender of individual and public interests, the subordination of uniformed structures to legal standards adopted on the basis of an open procedure and competition among various political forces represented in the Parliament and controlled by the society. The above does not prevent numerous political parties from continuing the discussion of the role and the place of militia in the contemporary Ukrainian society. This explains the diversity of approaches in the Government and the Parliament toward the range of powers, the level of autonomy and independence of the militia, the conditions of its funding, provision with personnel, and social support.

3. Demilitarization

This principle relies on the realization of the fact that the police, while carrying out a service function in the society and perceiving citizens as customers and partners, must have a different organizational structure than the military.

However, the experience of Central and Southeastern Europe shows the danger of not so much the militarized structure of political units, as the kinship of internal cultures of the military and the police resulting from a totalitarian militarized system of the Soviet epoch. In totalitarian states, the police takes over military values, the system of relations and behavioral stereotypes due to its being a part of the military structure. It is quite difficult to get rid of this historical baggage during the reform period, so the police often keeps using militarized law enforcement tactics and personnel management styles.

An example of this approach in CIS countries is using the law enforcement ideology calling for the “war on crime” or the “combat against crime” and treating an offender as an enemy to be fought. This absolutely militarized combat ideology usually forces a law enforcer to identify itself in real life with a person in a situation of the armed conflict, justifiable defense or extreme necessity. In its turn, this role stance requires rapid, resolute and uncompromising action to be taken to a single end: survive and win.[3]

It is characteristic of law enforcement agencies focused on combating crime as their major activity style that they quite rapidly migrate toward oppressive forms of social control, and concentrate on attaining the end result (“victory”), rather than on the means of “combat”. According to appropriate comments made by domestic specialists, such tactics entail the highest risk of unlawful coercion and violence against offenders. This approach is conducive to the well-known “Dirty Harry” phenomenon of defending law by illegal means, because the noble end “justifies” any means.[4]

Yet another example of maintenance of a military (rather than police) culture in Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies is addressing all the commissioned employees of law enforcement agencies with special ranks of the militia lieutenant and higher, who are treated by the current legislation not as officers, but as the senior-rank commanding personnel, with “Comrades (Gentlemen) Officers!”.

Interestingly, A. A. Lopukhin, Chief of the Department of Police of the Russian Empire, categorically objected to the military organization of law enforcement agencies and the existence of military discipline in the police back in 1907. He convincingly demonstrated that the military discipline was only appropriate in combat, which the police does not have anything to do with. However, the military discipline in the day-to-day work inhibits initiative, makes people think conventionally, does not encourage autonomous detection, and kills off the development of qualities professionally important for a real police officer from the very beginning.[5] The same arguments are quoted now by the European police scientists who advocate the establishment of the civil service spirit and culture in the police.

4. Decentralization

The contemporary governance theories treat decentralization as one of the major management techniques for the improvement of the flexibility and the efficiency of state authorities, and the protection of individuals against arbitrary treatment by the state. This principle relies on managerial, rather than structural changes, because its implementation is supposed to result in the decentralization of the decision-making, the liability and the allocation of resources needed for the efficient and prompt police response at a local level. In other words, police officers get broad decision making and implementation rights taking into consideration local conditions and their professional opinion in a decentralized system, even if the organizational structure formally remains centralized. The implementation of the decentralization principle has been traditionally seen in the establishment of municipal police units in national law enforcement systems.

The municipal police is usually understood as police formations established by local self-government bodies of various levels, which are directly subordinated to them. The extent of powers vested in the municipal police is not the same in different countries. In most European countries, the municipal police is tasked with the oversight of the road traffic safety, the sanitary condition of populated areas, the lawful order on markets, the enforcement of decisions of the local government. At the same time, it acts as a reserve of the national police. However, in the UK, Germany and the USA, the municipal police takes the lead in performing law enforcement activities.

The existence of the municipal police in countries of the West resulted from the long-term development of the Anglo-Saxon legal system, which did not envisage police autonomy, and the experience of the implementation of principles of the classical European democracy based upon the decentralization of the government. Importantly, the municipal police is funded mainly by the local government. This situation offers the state budget more strategic initiative.

The headcount, organizational models of the municipal police and approaches toward managing it by the local governments vary depending on national traditions. For instance, municipalities can have the right to open or close police precincts, appoint chiefs of local police units, raise the issue of audit of activities of the local police, specify the amount of funding to the police and the provision of material resources, and determine the major lines of policing.

While considering foreign experience, we should not forget that the existence of a decentralized police is based, first of all, upon the stability of political processes in such states, and the existence of a developed market-based economy. For instance, the idea of decentralizing police with the transfer of powers, resources and public order maintenance competences to municipalities was rejected in Hungary as premature.

5. Accountability and Transparency of Operations

The issue of establishing accountability in operations of law enforcement agencies can be solved by means of defining mechanisms for the society to control actions of law enforcers and to be certain that they act within the law. State authorities, which exercise so called “external” oversight over law enforcement agencies (courts, prosecution agencies, governmental committees, local self-government bodies, ombudsman’s office) are one of such mechanisms. “Internal” control units (internal-affairs units, internal audit and complaint management units) are another mechanism established not because of requirements of the government, but because of management needs of the police organization itself. The interaction between the internal and external control makes it possible to guarantee a proper level of police accountability to government institutions in general. However, the element of the civic public control as a guarantee of the equal participation of the population in the state governance process is becoming extremely important in addition to the internal and external control.

The principle of accountability to the society relies on the availability of the external (state), public and internal (agency) control over police activities, and on the readiness and openness of the police to such forms of control. While mechanisms of the internal and external control in most countries have already become stabilized and somewhat unified, the public control over activities of law enforcement agencies is still developing. For this reason, there are no ready-made solutions in the field of the civic control over law enforcement agencies.

The analysis of foreign experience has shown that, for instance, in the USA, the most widespread model of the civil control are municipal commissions established by order of the mayor or the city council. Such commissions are pretty homogeneous in Atlanta, Detroit, New Orleans, Philadelphia and San Francisco, as they consist solely of civil servants, who have never worked for police before. In other states, such commissions include civil servants, police officers, citizen volunteers, members of NGOs nominated to commissions by the mayor, the city council and the chief of police in accordance with their respective quotas.

The commissions’ term of office and the number of members are different in all cities and states, but all of them are independent on the relevant police department, and report several times a year to the local government only with the subsequent publication of their reports in media. Some commissions have access to police databases, and co-operate with internal affairs units actively. Other commissions are permitted to only exercise general supervision over the state of affairs in the police, and do not have any access to the police service information. Some municipal commissions (San Francisco, Portland, Philadelphia) have their own investigators entitled to carry out independent, additional or repeated investigations of facts of police violations with the subsequent submission of results to the police management or court for making the final decision. In cities, such as Indianapolis, Detroit and Philadelphia, commissions are only competent to examine non-criminal misconduct by police officers. In New Orleans, vice versa, the civic control committee investigates only serious offenses perpetrated by police officers while on service. Materials on minor incidents and off-service violations are sent for review to the chief of New Orleans police.

There are certain varieties in the procedure of processing complaints against illegitimate police acts. Of course, it is enough to visit the office of the public commission, and fill out an appropriate form to submit a complaint. However, complaints in San Francisco can be submitted not only by mail, but also by phone under the veil of full anonymity. The findings of public commissions and their recommendations may either be binding upon police, or be issued solely for information purposes.

For instance, the civic and public control over police activities in Bulgaria is exercised by a so-called “political committee” consisting of the minister with deputies, and politicians reporting to the Parliament.

In the post-Soviet area, supervisory commissions are often established in municipalities. They consist of representatives of law enforcement agencies and local self-government bodies, NGOs, media and civil specialists.

The specific features of civil control forms specified above demonstrate, first of all, their clear dependence on national traditions and the prevailing culture of the population of specific regions. It is important to make sure that these nationally adapted forms of control face acceptance on the part of chiefs of law enforcement agencies and readiness of the uniformed agencies of the state to offer a sufficient level of transparency.

Law enforcement agencies are expected to nominate officers or set up units in charge of public relations and international relations in line with the transparency principle. This step would make it possible to engage into a multi-vector communication with the public by polling public opinion, analyzing press, reviewing experience of public and international organizations in order to develop proper tactics and strategies of community relations. At the same time, citizens are promptly informed about activities and performance results of law enforcement agencies as a whole, and the distance in relations between the police and the community is reduced by holding information campaigns, “hot lines” and specialized columns in the media.

Police will also have to come up with efficient mechanisms of the investigation of cases of the violation of rights of individuals as a result of unprofessional or illegal acts of law enforcers. The population, in their turn, would have access to the information about the investigation of offenses perpetrated by police officers. While the access of the public to the information about the progress of investigations, personal details of case subjects and other procedural documents is restricted, the free access should be provided to results of investigations. Information materials and documents on plans and performance results of police units, the general budget and expenses, the profiles of the police personnel (by age, gender, education and qualification level), and the contact details of officers, etc. must also be generally accessible.

Transparency requirements also have an aspect of technical requirements for the work of law enforcement agencies. For instance, most European police units try to accommodate police officers in rooms transparent as much as possible. To this end, open-space offices divided into sections with low or transparent partitions are developed to make it possible for the manager to control activities of the subordinates easily. In the opinion of the European colleagues, this design creates a working business-like atmosphere, disciplines and strengthens the responsibility of each employee for own conduct. The introduction of the literally transparent regime of work extremely complicates not only the perpetration of corruption by police officers, but even having private conversations on work phones.

In UK, police units were the first to install video surveillance equipment not only to control the condition of persons in custody, but also to control personnel. Video cameras are openly installed in working premises, corridors, and front offices, and all officers of the relevant unit are informed about it. Some of the cameras do not need to be in operation; however, the presence of video cameras creates the so-called “effect of presence” of the internal control over actions of each individual. In addition to positive aspects of the video surveillance, European police scientists consider the high cost of this technique to be the major deficiency of such measures in the individual prevention of service offenses. For this reason, e.g, in Ukraine, video recording is used mainly in the course of covert service inspections, while the issue of the generally available video surveillance on the militia premises has only recently become a subject of discussion.

6. Close Co-operation with the Public and Local Communities

The experience in the reform of American and European law enforcement structures, the depoliticization and demilitarization processes almost automatically bring police organizations toward getting rid of their image of “professional crime fighters” and refocusing on the crime prevention. Thus, the tactics of law enforcement become much less associated with the use of force and the confrontation with the community.

Under this principle, police agencies must shift the emphasis in their work toward community relations without ditching their major task of the public order enforcement, because crime solving and prevention can hardly be promising without an active and interested support by citizens. In this case, the key figure of prevention is not a “criminal fighter”, but a “police trainer” focused on training and advising individuals, who do not want to become victims of criminal attempts. Thus, the law enforcement activities concentrate on a direct and long-term provision of services to the community in the field of enhancing its safety.

The co-operation with community would require shifts in activities of the law enforcement agencies, so that the priority be given not to the response to criminal offenses, but to solving the entire range of issues faced by the population of a specific area in the field of compliance with the law. The police is expected to pay interest not only to the information about offenses, but also to the needs of individuals, their problems and complicated relationships creating conducive conditions for the exacerbation of the crime. Police unit performance efficiency assessment criteria need to change as well. The quality of response to reports from the community, the quality of relations between the community and the MIA personnel, the activity of the police personnel in solving pressing issues of inhabitants of the area, the diversity of law enforcement measures, the intensity of working relations with local self-government bodies, state authorities and mass media must be treated as the most essential criteria.

This concentration on needs of the community would require an active interaction of law enforcers with local inhabitants based on interpersonal communication and conflict resolution skills. Today, the police work focused on needs of the population and described above as “community policing” resulted in the development of at least six models: police services on a geographical basis; co-operation of several law enforcement agencies; crime prevention by the community; the strategy of ongoing contact between the police and inhabitants; the territorial foot patrols; the population involvement and consultations with the community.

It should be borne in mind that the implementation of all these models requires not only a high professional level of the personnel, but also the transformation of law enforcement agencies into an open organization on the service to the public, which carries out its tasks in an ethically acceptable manner for strengthening democratic values.

7. Professional Development of the Personnel

The police personnel are traditionally subjected to stringent requirements and restrictions starting with conditions of employment and ending with the exercise of human rights. This is, first of all, because police officers are directly involved into the enforcement of decisions of the government with the responsibility vested in each particular officer, because the prominence of the state power in this case depends on the individual professional competence.

The police personnel professional level has always been in the focus of attention of the public. For this reason, any change in the law enforcement strategy has been accompanied by the reform of the law enforcer professional development system. At the current stage, when the service to the society and the assurance of public safety require the waiver of aggressive policies, the European police scientists more and more clearly talk about the priority development of the agency ethics of law enforcement agencies as the theoretical basis for the highly moral conduct by law enforcers. This is also associated with the fact that the level of relations between the public and the uniformed agencies requires the law enforcement agencies not only to properly comply with the established rules and procedures in the field of law, but also to make sure that their acts are based upon decisions morally sound in the eyes of the public. In other words, a law enforcement officer has not only to be responsible for their decisions, but also to be accountable for the moral basis of such decisions.

Specialists refer to the following aspects of the activity of law enforcement officers as major arguments in favor of the priority development of ethical principles:

- law enforcement officers have discretion when making decisions on life, freedom and property of other people;

- as servants and defenders of interests of the society, they are obliged to demonstrate the best standards of conduct (prudence, integrity, objectivity, high morals);

- the police (militia) are entitled to use non-public operative methods with the use of confidential information fully dependent on personal qualities of the personnel;

- police (militia) officers often epitomize all state authorities and the society in general for ethnic minorities;

- non-qualified and illegal acts of police (militia) officers hamper the image of the entire law enforcement system and state authorities instantly and considerably.

In view of the above considerations, police units must focus on developing the following personal qualities in their personnel while developing corporate ideology and philosophy matching the needs of the society as fully as possible: respect for other people; benevolence; efficiency and professionalism; compliance with principles of legality and rule of law; accountability; care for others; being honest to oneself and others; dedicated service to the community.[6]

European law enforcement standards also provide that a new police officer must undergo not only general, professional and service training, but also a briefing in social issues, democratic freedoms, human rights and, for instance, the European Human Rights Convention. In practice, this briefing can be offered in the form of seminars dedicated to the operation of the democratic society and principles of the rule of law, or special training courses in humanitarian law and human rights.

The police service focus must also call for developing a special system for the day-to-day personnel training and control combining daily brief discussions of the emerging issues and the review of practical cases; the training in the field of the application of provisions of law and the compliance with ethical principles; sessions dedicated to the development of role-change skills, the ability to demonstrate professional qualities in socially acceptable forms during off hours; the exchange of individual positive experiences; the involvement of police officers into groups, clubs and interest associations for the expansion of their social contacts and the development of their cultural needs.

In the field of the professional development of the personnel, special attention needs to be paid to criteria of selection of candidates to positions in law enforcement agencies. The Human Resource Management Policy of Ukraine’s MIA relies on a value-based approach toward the personnel selection. This approach involves specifying a list of moral/ethical, business and personal qualities each candidate must have, as well as medical and psychological criteria protecting the law enforcement agencies from individuals not capable of serving. The weak predictive force of this technique in terms of the availability of the necessary positive qualities in a person and their subsequent successful career in law enforcement is a weakness. This approach toward selecting candidates does not guarantee rapid adaptation to the service specifics and their successful work for a specific unit.

Unlike in CIS countries, a selection system based on the assessment of the developed skills and competencies of an individual, their responses to various situations is being broadly implemented in a number of European countries. Advocates for this approach rightly believe that the assessment of a candidate’s skills makes it possible not only to diagnose their professionally important personal qualities, but also to pretty accurately predict the success of their work for a specific service. The list of skills and qualities to be assessed is relatively large: it includes motivation and self-control specifics; the prudence and the awareness of own strengths and weaknesses; the ability to understand feelings of others and to influence them; the ability to develop and maintain working relations; the assurance of own abilities, the ability to listen and communicate, the ability to take initiative and maintain optimistic attitude with colleagues; the ability to work in a team; the ability to assimilate new knowledge and skills.

Police agencies are expected to apply more stringent selection criteria from the point of view of the society requirements to candidates to the management positions. For instance, such candidates are assessed under two comprehensive categories (general competence and special competence) in the UK. The general competence assessment should evaluate qualities, such as the knowledge of professional and ethical standards; communication skills; personal motivation; the ability to make necessary decisions; the creativeness and the openness for innovations. The special qualities assessment should cover the leadership qualities of the candidate, their ability to manage personnel and take care of the professional development of their subordinates, their day-to-day activity planning skills, elements of strategic thinking, tolerance toward the implementation of a gender and ethnically-balanced HR policy.

The participation of representatives of the local community, NGOs, local self-government bodies in personnel and examination commissions can be treated as an additional condition for the review of candidates to regional-level management positions in the police.

[1] These requirements for the policing in a modern democratic society were formulated in 2001 by D. Bailey, a U.S. police scientist, on the basis of the analysis of a broad range of regulations.

[2] Права людини і професійні стандарти для працівників міліції та пенітенціарних установ в документах міжнародних організацій (Human Rights and Professional Standards for Militia and Penitentiary Officers in Documents of International Organisations). – Амстердам-Київ, 1996. – 227 с. - с. 62-65.

[3] Glover J. Humanity, a moral history of the twentieth century. – London: Yale University Press, 2001. – 480 p.

[4] Мартыненко О.А. Детерминация и предупреждение преступности среди персонала органов внутренних дел Украины: Монография (Determination and Crime Prevention among Personnel of Law Enforcement Agencies of Ukraine: a Monograph). – Х.: Изд-во ХНУВС, 2005. - 468 с.

[5] Лопухин А.А. Настоящее и будущее русской полиции. Из итогов служебного опыта (Russian Police Now and in the Future. Results of Service Experience). М., 1907. – 69 с. - С. 61.

[6] Jones T., Newburn T., Smith D.J. Democracy and Policing. – London: PSI, 1994. – 784 p.; Alderson J.C. Principled Policing: Protecting the Public with Integrity. –Winchester: Waterside Press, 1998. – 185 р.

National public platform:
«Reform of police: transparency and responsibility»

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

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