In a sports hall echoing with shouted warnings, occasional giggles and the rasp of closing handcuffs, young Ukrainians lunge at each other with batons, twist arms behind each other’s backs and pin one another to the ground.
They are training for Ukraine’s new police patrol service, which is intended to replace one of the country’s most loathed institutions as well as exemplify the declared values of its post-revolutionary order.
As in most former Soviet states, Ukraine’s traffic police are widely viewed as uniformed bribe-takers who shake down regular drivers for minor or non-existent offences while allowing those with money and influence to flout the law.
The new patrol, which is due to hit the streets of Kiev next month before being rolled out across the country, is supposed to be different: an honest, effective and approachable force, which shows sceptical Ukrainians that western-backed reforms can make a real difference to their daily lives.
“I always wanted to join the police, but before you had to pay a bribe to get in. Now entry is based on test results; it’s fair, and I was accepted,” said Anya Koroliuk (23), during a break in training.
“Lots of people don’t believe the new patrol will be clean, that we didn’t pay to join and won’t take bribes,” she said. “We’ll have to show by our behaviour that we are different, and that we’ll treat everyone equally – that it won’t be possible now to get off by paying $10 or making a phone call.”
Backhanders
The current traffic police force is almost entirely male, and chosen through an opaque process often influenced by backhanders and personal contacts.
Their 2,000 replacements in Kiev were selected from more than 30,000 applicants following intelligence, fitness and psychological tests. Their average age is just 24, and one-fifth of them are women; more than 70 per cent have a higher education and about one-third are taking a pay cut from their previous jobs.
The cadets have undergone 10 weeks of training in 25 disciplines under the guidance of American instructors who stayed on in Kiev to oversee the process.
“There’s a cultural difference, in that police here were seen not as protecting the people but protecting the government, and there’s a feeling that ordinary people actually need protecting from the police,” said Jason Jared, an instructor from the California highway patrol.
“We’re teaching recruits how to make an arrest, defend themselves, search buildings and control a situation,” he said. “But above all, it’s about the need to be responsible and professional, and to show respect . . . because every interaction will have an effect on public perception.”
Yanukovich fled
Fifteen months after president
Viktor Yanukovich
and his allies fled
Ukraine
, the country has suffered through Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a continuing Moscow-backed insurgency in its industrial heartland.
With the economy in tatters, Ukraine’s currency has slumped and prices have soared, placing great strain on a nation of 45 million people who have yet to see the benefit of their new leaders’ promised reform and anti-corruption drive.
The government hopes the new patrol force will provide a much-needed boost to their efforts, replacing a symbol of the venal old regime with a high-visibility example of how the new Ukraine should work.
Kiev's allies are lending a hand: the US provides police training and technical help; Japan is sending hundreds of environmentally friendly Toyota Prius police cars, and the EU and international agencies are offering other forms of assistance.
The project is overseen by Eka Zguladze, who helped successfully overhaul the traffic police in her native Georgia after its 2003 Rose Revolution.
“What can’t be touched, smelled and eaten does not feel like reform for the people,” said Zguladze (36), who took Ukrainian citizenship before becoming deputy interior minister last December.
“We have to show people that this is what we mean by reform, that things can be like this. Tangible changes are very important.”
She said the new patrol force, which is scheduled to start work in four other major cities in the autumn, is just the start of sweeping police reform.
“We’re trying to change a big system . . . and the policeman on the street is the basis of police work. It’s like we’re putting a virus into a body, and it will work from the bottom up.”
Better wages
The new recruits are set to earn at least €350 a month – a decent wage by Ukrainian standards, and three times more than the current traffic police, for some of whom bribe- taking was the only way to make ends meet.
“Some traffic police even had to buy their own notebooks and fuel; I don’t think they are bad people, but conditions were bad,” said cadet Koroliuk.
“Now conditions are good, and we’ll have what we need . . . If we want to make things better in Ukraine, it’s up to us.”
