A Night For Kyiv's Much-Hyped New Police

Hromadske followed a nighttime shift of Yevhen Kirkizhov, a member of the new police force that was recently formed amid great fanfare and public speculation. The new police force is part of the Interior Ministry's reform project to combat corruption.

"I was earning about 12,000-15,000 UAH per month as a realtor. Here they promise only 8,000. That’s only a half," retells Kirkizhov. "I cannot say that money was the main reason for me."

"If the old corrupted regime is back with orders to fulfill plans I’ll quit. But I’m sure that it won’t happen. We see who our bosses are: all of them are new people, not connected with the previous regime," said Kirkizhov.

Despite his optimism, there was much trepidation for the new recruits as they set out to begin their new duties.

"We were afraid of the society’s reaction, because in social networks some people write that we are the same staff but in the new uniform," Kirkizhov informs.

"But the reaction of the majority is positive. They’re waving, greeting us! It motivates us."

Kirkizhov explains the procedure that all new police follow when out on patrol:

"We have GPS so they can see on the maps where we are at the moment. I have the tablet in the car and they send a task to that car which is closer to the crime scene. We read the description of the task and then press “accept” and set out. So the time is fixed. When we reach the place we press “arrived” and start solving the conflict. After the conflict is settled we press “complete”.

He reassures Hromadske that there is very little chance for the officers to engage in overt corrupted practises that exemplified the previous police force.

"All the actions are displayed to the operators. Also the camera films everything. All the dialogues are recorded. We don’t have access to videos; we cannot watch or delete them."

// Video by Koss Kazymko, Yevhen Yevreiskyi. Filmed 07.06.2015.