“Shock Therapy” in Ukraine: A Radical Approach to Post‐Soviet Police Reform
| Date | 01 May 2016 |
| Author | Robert Peacock,Gary Cordner |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1748 |
| Published date | 01 May 2016 |
“SHOCK THERAPY”IN UKRAINE: A RADICAL APPROACH TO
POST-SOVIET POLICE REFORM
ROBERT PEACOCK
1
AND GARY CORDNER
2
*
1
Michigan State University Criminal Justice, USA
2
Kutztown University Criminal Justice, USA
SUMMARY
Ukraine has pursued an aggressive “shock therapy”approach to police reform since early 2015, in the aftermath of the
February 2014 Maidan protests and subsequent change of government. This approach is described and examined in light of
previous 21st century post-Soviet police reform efforts in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. Internal and external pressures
to demonstrate real commitment to corruption control and rule of law seem to have been responsible for pushing Ukraine in
the direction of the Georgian shock therapy model. Early results are very promising, but significant challenges remain, includ-
ing sustaining the reform political coalition, overcoming bureaucratic resistance to change, surviving the armed insurgency in
eastern Ukraine, downsizing the old militsiya, reshaping the culture of corruption that permeates the entire government and
much of society, and convincing the citizenry that the new police are truly committed to serving the public, not regime
protection. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—police corruption; police reform; post-Soviet; shock therapy; Ukraine
INTRODUCTION
Prior to the current reform, Ukraine was policed by a centralized national militia divided into several distinct
functional components, including investigations, district inspectors, juvenile police, traffic police, and a non-sworn
public security/patrol (Ministry of Internal Affairs, 1996). Most individuals entered the militia at a young age,
either through 5-year universities or vocational police schools, all run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).
Those completing the university system began their careers as lieutenants, typically serving as investigators or in
staff positions (Lyashenko, 2002). Those entering through vocational police schools mainly filled the lower ranks
of the non-sworn traffic and patrol components. In addition, the militia included tactical/riot police units (notably
Berkut), typically comprised of former military special forces personnel responsible for maintaining civil order and
reacting to high-risk situations.
Reviewing Ukrainian policing since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Beck (2005) found that the word continuity
best described the post-Soviet period. A patrol officer or investigator from the Soviet Ukraine would have found few
differences between the militia of the 1980s and the militia of independent Ukraine in June 2015. As in the Soviet
period, the ministrywas built around a militia designed primarily to protect thestate (Beck et al., 2002). The majority
of that militia spenttheir days at a desk or on guard duty while the interface with the publicwas primarily handled by
poorly trained staff with minimal authority working on the street as traffic police or on foot patrol (Shelley, 1999;
Beck and Robertson, 2009a, 2009b). The legal basis for this structure remained the 1990 Law on Militia passed
prior to the independence of Ukraine (Beck, 2005). Many of the ministry’s standard operating procedures, such as
medical requirements for new officers, consisted of technical manuals produced in Moscow for the Soviet Union
three decades earlier.
1
The post-Soviet period did introduce one new constant, although officers usually had to
*Correspondence to: G. Cordner, Kutztown University Criminal Justice, 212 S. Church Street, Macungie, Pennsylvania, 18062, USA. E-mail:
gcordner@gmail.com
1
Interview with Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) Human Resources Department in May 2015.
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 36,80–92 (2016)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1748
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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