- Title: New police force finds old habits die hard in Ukraine
- Date: 17th May 2016
- Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (APRIL 28, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF OF UKRAINE'S NATIONAL POLICE, VLADYSLAV VLASIUK, SAYING: "We had a new story of relationship between national police and prosecution, general prosecution in Ukraine. And it became worse actually. And you never felt safe for yourself from that point."
- Embargoed: 1st June 2016 12:06
- Keywords: Ukraine police patrol Vladyslav Vlasiuk reform
- Location: KIEV AND KRAMATORSK, UKRAINE
- City: KIEV AND KRAMATORSK, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Defence,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0034I73ARR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The launch of Ukraine's new police patrol force last year sparked an internet craze of citizens posting selfies with newly recruited officers. Their popularity stemmed not from their uniforms, body cameras and tablets, but the fact they did not demand bribes. The most visibly successful reform to have emerged from the pro-European Maidan protests in 2014 is now under threat, serving and former law enforcement officials say, accusing vested interests of seeking to obstruct and discredit the force.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a lawyer by training who rose through patrol police ranks to become Chief of Staff of the National Police, quit in March, "exhausted" by the pushback against change, he told Reuters in his first media interview since.
"First, I felt quite exhausted of all that stuff. Second, I didn't feel at that point being able to deliver anything more than I delivered before. So I quite did my job and in March it became quite apparent for me that I wasn't that efficient anymore," he says.
The experience he described shows how fragile Ukraine's progress in transforming itself into a Western-facing free market democracy could prove to be. The police reform, possibly for the first time in the former Soviet republic's history, "showed international partners that we in Ukraine are actually able to carry out some reforms," Vlasiuk said. Before Maidan, police "would always do what the prosecutors say. Then it changed," he said. "The National Police positioned itself as a separate and equal law enforcement power. Prosecutors did not like it."
In Ukraine, prosecutors have the power to launch investigations into public servants suspected of wrongdoing - a power which police officers say is being abused.
The General Prosecutor's office did not provide immediate comment when asked about the allegations.
The United States and European Union, which are helping to fund a $40 billion aid-for-reform programme for Ukraine, have repeatedly called for a clean-up of the General Prosecutor's office, which they see as a key obstacle to fighting corruption.
Several high-profile reformers have been sacked from the government and prosecution service or resigned in frustration.
First Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze has also quit, to take on an advisory role in the ministry. Her resignation statement on Wednesday gave no reason but contained a warning over the fate of reforms.
With the help of U.S. money and training, and headed by a former Georgian minister, the new police force was set up as part of a root-and-branch reform to weed out endemic corruption.
The new patrol section was launched in July and incorporated into a revamped National Police force. The patrol officers seemed to be everything those dreaming of a new Ukraine after Maidan hoped: committed, trustworthy, less susceptible to bribes and not afraid to go after the rich and the powerful.
Drawn from all walks of life, they carried smart tablets as well as body cameras to make police work transparent. In a sign of changing times, Energy Minister Ihor Nasalik announced on Friday he'd been given a parking fine - and willingly paid.
Vlasiuk, 27, was part of a new generation of Young officers entering public service after Maidan. He is in the process of setting up an NGO to provide legal assistance to officers and burnish the police's image nationally.
His former boss, a Georgian technocrat called Khatia Dekanoidze in charge of the National Police, described in a separate interview cases of vested interests undermining change.
An initiative to fire corrupt or incompetent officers by vetting them in a "reattestation" process has led to hundreds of lawsuits by sacked officers, some of whom got their jobs back.
Dekanoidze said judges were deliberately reinstating discredited officers for fear the judiciary could be next.
"This is a revenge of the old system, because the judiciary system, especially courts, they are part of the old system," Dekanoidze said.
There are other obstacles to reforms. The police budget is tight in a country at war with Russian-backed separatists and an economy that shrank by a tenth last year.
An incident that has grown into a cause celebre for the police occurred on the night of Feb 7. A police car chased a speeding BMW through the streets of Kiev, recorded on a black and white police camera in footage later broadcast on TV.
Starting with warning shots, three police officers fired a total of 34 bullets at the car during the course of a 40 minute chase, according to an interior ministry spokesman. Eventually, one of the bullets killed a 17-year-old passenger inside.
Prosecutors accused the officer of wilful murder and abuse of authority; he is under house arrest while they investigate.
Police said the officer was trying to protect the public from a driver who was drunk. Their supporters protested in Kiev holding banners saying "Keep Calm and Support Patrol Police" and the hashtag #savepolice appeared on Twitter.
Anton Gerashchenko, a lawmaker and member of the interior ministry council, said the case was an example of prosecutors seeking to show they remained in control by discrediting police.
Dekanoidze echoed that view. "Police reform is the only reform that is visible, that is a real reform for Ukrainians," she said. So when prosecutors went after those defending the lives of ordinary Ukrainians, "it looked like The Inquisition."
She added there were other cases when police had gone after illegal gambling rackets - only for prosecutors to open criminal cases against the officers.
Much will hinge on the performance of the new General Prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, a former interior minister whose appointment on Thursday raised eyebrows because he had no legal background.
Dekanoidze said she hopes prosecutors under Lutsenko will cooperate with the police. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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