Thousands of Ukrainians want to... join police

Those wanting to protect the public order filled out almost 4,000 questionnaires on the first day of the recruiting campaign, even though most people e-mailed them. Meanwhile, the police will recruit just 2,000 patrol officers. The coordination center is located at the House of Teachers.

Young women and men alike are filling out the questionnaires. They include students, graduates of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ schools and managers who have lost their jobs because of the crisis. Alina Ostroverkhova studies in Kyiv, but she came to the city from Luhansk region. “Joining the patrol police is for me an opportunity to change something in my life. I am currently working as a waiter and studying for an economics degree. Having learned from my family about the patrol recruitment campaign, I decided to give it a go. I gave thought to serving in law enforcement before. There are good prospects in this job, and moreover, they promise a good benefits package,” Ostroverkhova told us.

The questionnaire is the first stage of the patrol selection procedure. Those who will pass it will be invited to testing before March 1, aiming to determine their physical and moral fitness for the job. The testing will be followed by a two-month training course at a special center and another testing on completing the course. Only having cleared all these hurdles, one will be able to become a patrol officer. The main requirements for candidates include age (21 to 35), completed secondary or higher education, a driver’s license of the B category, a clean criminal record, and fluent Ukrainian.

The MIA reform has support of the government and the Department of State of the US. “The implementation of reforms in Ukraine will have the best American consultants working on it,” the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt assured. “The most important principles of the new patrol service are zero-tolerance approach to corruption, transparency, accountability, and the rule of law. We will support the establishment of such a service in Kyiv, so that it may become a model for other cities in Ukraine, and we will do so in cooperation with our European partners.”

The new patrol officers will start working in the streets of the capital from June. “We cannot do everything at once, but as soon as the human resources and equipment allow for training police in other cities, the changes will come there as well,” deputy minister of internal affairs Eka Zguladze said.