Reforms launched at the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Expert: “Main Department for Combating Organized Crime is no longer necessary because organized crime has undergone a radical transformation since the 1990s. The MIA still has a lot of work cut out for it in optimizing its departments, though”
The Verkhovna Rada has passed a law on police reform, supported by 288 MPs. Thus, the police reform, long advertised by the MIA’s boss Arsen Avakov, has finally started. Avakov took office almost a year ago. The law has liquidated the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime (HUBOZ), veterinary and transport police, but there is more to the reform. “We will develop the single project of the national police and reach consensus on this. I would like us to do it this spring,” Avakov said when announcing to the MPs the MIA’s further reform plans.
How should we treat the announced changes in the police?
COMMENTARY
Oleh MARTYNENKO, director of the Center for Law-Enforcement Studies, Doctor of Law:
“These changes mean optimization of the MIA structure. It was spelled out in the Strategy of Police Development and intended to eliminate the unnecessary fragmentation of the MIA into units that perform the same function. For instance, the HUBOZ duplicated the functions of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), while the veterinary police those of the State Sanitary and Veterinary Service.
“The HUBOZ productivity was extremely low, because the lack of political will prevented it from investigating crimes committed by major criminals, and it was content with busting people on lower ‘floors’ of the underworld. Sometimes, it even got to the point where the HUBOZ officers ‘bought’ criminal cases from other departments in order to have something to show for themselves in the reports. In addition, it was a closed system with a high degree of internal corruption. According to a criminological study, the HUBOZ was a highly crime-ridden department, with the largest number of officers convicted of crimes per 1,000.
“In general, the HUBOZ is no longer necessary because organized crime has undergone a radical transformation since the 1990s when it was created. Organized crime activity has moved to the level of big business and MPs, where criminals are almost inaccessible to this department. Therefore, the HUBOZ can return to where it came from, I mean the CID and, to a lesser extent, the State Service for Combating Economic Crimes.
“The MIA still has a lot of work cut out for it in optimizing its departments, though. First of all, it should deal with the State Protection Service (SPS), which is actually a commercial enterprise under the ministry’s aegis. The SPS enjoys privileges manifesting as police-issued uniforms, certificates, and weapons, but is in fact a private personal security agency. Therefore, it should be redesignated as a private security agency, subject to normal market regulations.
“When Avakov took the office of minister of internal affairs, he had no clear vision of how to reform the departments in his remit. Therefore, the minister asked human rights activists to present such a vision to him as a concept, to be delivered by September to November 2014. When we finally did it, the country was in the throes of the anti-terrorist operation and parliamentary elections. Although the minister was very busy, he was able to contribute to passage of the concept and the strategy of reforms. We are seeing real steps for their implementation being taken now.”
