Page 9 - Empowerment and Protection - Ukraine Chapter

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The police and the vacuum of state protection
The police were simultaneously the least efficient government agency and the most in demand as a security provider. The attitude of Tolyk, a 32-year- old security guard in Kyiv was: “In any case, turn
to the police, it is their job, we pay them taxes and the taxpayer has the right to protection.” Yet, there was an apparent paradox in how people related to authorities as security providers. On the one hand, police were most frequently cited as necessary authorities. On the other, respondents did not express confidence that the police were either likely or willing to provide for their security needs.
Yana, a female university student in Kyiv illustrated
this ambivalence: “[In some cases], out of pure
instinct, one goes to the police. But if there is no
one in uniform around, or if you don’t trust them,
you can only count on your own self. When [I was
attacked] there were people around who could
interfere, but no one did. There are situations when
said about the police, “As always is the case with
us, you need to go to a police [officer] you know personally, and it will be efficient then.” Yevhen
saw it this way: “Both sides [of the legal system] contribute to the same corruption scheme... one prosecutor who takes a larger bribe by the lawyer, turns the case slightly the other way than the prosecutor who takes a smaller bribe and so on. All is built on corruption, from top to bottom. There are no other mechanisms, or any other motivations.”
”All is built on corruption, from top
to bottom. There are no other mechanisms, or any other motivations.”
The least protected people in such an environment were those with the lowest social capital – including the undereducated, the working class, young students living independently of their families, and single elderly persons. The underlying issues were thus closely related to governance and social justice issues. Mykhailo, a civic activist in his fourties in
Kyiv said, “Police who want to clear a crime go after people who resemble somebody, and if they see that this is not some tough guy, and there is no one who would stand up for him, they may simply accuse him of some crime. A [guy I know] got his kids accused for no reason. It was lucky that he was a judge.”
rights and access to information
The level of awareness of rights and obligations in relation to security providers was a recurring theme in the interviews. There was a clear sense of information asymmetry that contributed to the power imbalance between the state and citizens. Information asymmetry concerns the lack of information at all levels of public communication, including citizens’ awareness of their legal rights, the transparency in the work of government agencies and informed public opinion in a more general sense.
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point further, Ihor said, “When you see people wearing uniforms, you a priori perceive them as a [source] of danger. You don’t know what to expect from them. If a situation doesn’t warrant immediate action, people usually try to avoid the official route if they can.”
Against the backdrop of a dysfunctional police, people mainly relied on their social relations, family, friends and community for physical protection. Anatoliy said, “You can try and call the police [but] this is more like a method to distract attention.
But, generally, it’s good to have a few friends
who could physically come and stand by you.
This is perhaps the best method of protection.”
The inadequacy of the police is further reflected
in the use of private security agencies by larger corporations and the richer strata of Ukrainians. The fact that the elite rely on private firms for their security needs is another indicator of the failure of the public security sector.
Corruption and nepotism
State institutions often appeared to work more effectively through personal contacts and
informal relationships, including those established through bribes. Knowing ‘the right people’ in the appropriate agency was deemed a more important resource than the official mandate of the agency in question. Oxana, a 25-year-old woman who worked with a transport company in Livoberezhna, Kyiv
Ukraine
36 SToRIES of HUman SECURITY | Ukraine
you feel like no one will help you.” Illustrating the
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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