"The reforms are not only the Patrol Police officers, but all of us at the first place", these words said by the Patrol Police inspector Sergiy Lyakh, were the theme of an open dialogue "Police and students: an honest conversation face-to-face" held in a social activity hub "Studio 42" in Kharkiv on November 9.
“The reforms are not only the Patrol Police officers, but all of us at the first place”, these words said by the Patrol Police inspector Sergiy Lyakh, were the theme of an open dialogue “Police and students: an honest conversation face-to-face” held in a social activity hub “Studio 42” in Kharkiv on November 9. “The future of the city depends on its citizens. Do not be afraid to report on violations, come to the police officers, talk to them, get what’s new at first hand. In terms of setting up the trust it is important for Patrol Police officers and ordinary citizens”, Sergiy continued.
During the event, organized by the International Renaissance Foundation’s Eastern Office, the Laboratory of peaceful solutions at the Local Democracy Foundation, and the Department of Education and Science at Kharkiv Regional State Administration, much attention was paid to the issues of trust in the new Patrol Police. Students, representatives of the students’ self-governments of Kharkiv universities, emphasized that since the implementation of the police reform, attitude to the law enforcement bodies has changed considerably for the better. “Earlier, parents scared their children of policeman as a boogeyman, and now mommies take police officers as positive role models, ask them for help”, said Arseniy Dyadchenko, a student at the National University of Civil Defense of Ukraine.
Natalia Sukhorukova, chief specialist of the Department of Education at Kharkiv Regional State Administration, told about the inadmissibility of focusing only on the Patrol Police’s faults, which are much less than achievements. The role of youth in the implementation of the reforms at local and regional levels, and positive changes were declared by the head of the IRF East Ukrainian Office Olena Rozskazova.
Police reform in Ukraine, among other things, predicts that criminal police department transform into the customer service. How do police officers see and experience these changes? How does a society see “a renewed police”? Should the responsibility for the safety be distributed between the police and citizens? Law enforcement body and human rights activists, public figures and journalists are trying to give answers to these questions. Versions on the fortune and effects of the police reform are rumored and reinforced to be the outdated stereotypes.
Myths that exist among students of Patrol police were dispelled with the assistance of a facilitator at the Peaceful Solutions Laboratory Alyona Kopina. It was found out that the patrol policemen are not responsible for reacting to the call 102 (this is centralized). Many myths concerned the gender issue of the Patrol police and principles of the patrol units’ arranging and human rights.
Group discussions allowed representatives of the Patrol police and student government to better understand each other, to realize the peculiarities of police officers’ work. It turned out that most students wanted to help the police, so they even proposed to create a community volunteer patrol from the students on the campuses’ territory. Much attention was given to the interaction between society and police (including Presumption of Police Officer’s Rightness), new patrol policemen’ personal qualities, their relations with workers at the police stations, updated material base, use of weapons, policemen’s help after hours, patrol officers’ breaking of the law.
Students said that after the dialogue a level of trust in the police patrol, whom they talked to, significantly increased. They assured that such measures lead to the loyalty of the police in general, confidence that they can help in any circumstance. During the conversation it was noted that although the Patrol police sometimes makes mistakes, but a level of our security depends on the new police. Therefore, recognition of their merit is very important to implement the reform.
Representatives of the Patrol police also noted the need for such events as often as possible. “This dialogue has been very useful for interaction between police and society for both Kharkiv and the whole country “, Alla Starokozheva, Patrol police inspector, said. To her opinion, it is necessary to change the attitude of the police, show that the patrol service is not a closed structure and is always ready to cooperate and transparent in its activities.
