"Ukrainian sheriffs" to operate in towns and villages of the country

"The Interior Ministry has already launched a second program on the introduction of police not only in big cities but also in small towns and villages. This is the "Ukrainian sheriff" program. District militia officers will be replaced with new police officers - not only in a new uniform, in new vehicles, but first of all with the new training, with the new philosophy, new attitude towards every citizen," Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk underlined at a visiting session of the Government on Wednesday, September 23, in Poltava.

"These so-called Ukrainian sheriffs should know every family, every house at their stations in their districts, in small towns, in villages," he stressed.

The emergence of new Ukrainian police officers in the streets of small towns and villages, according to the Head of the Government, will enable to help citizens "directly solve problems in every town, city and village."

The Government has additionally provided in the budget UAH140 million for this program: "Now the Interior Minister is actively working with our Western partners - the United States, Canada and member states of the European Union - on obtaining funding for the National Police in 2015-2016."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk also noted that a candidate for the post of the National Police’s head is being considered. He/she should be "a person of experience with a real will to form a new police not by name, but by the content."

He also recalled that more than 800 people applied to join the new police of Poltava: "People with higher education, with some hands-on experience, but young and motivated, come to the new Poltava police ready to pass the tests, ready to serve the people of Ukraine."

"This is one more key reform that every Poltava’s citizen can directly see, as we see it in the streets of Kyiv," he said.

He stressed the need to reform the law enforcement system as a whole: "By reducing the number of police officers we improve quality of employees. Our target by the end by the year - 152,000 employees in the law enforcement system of the new Ukrainian National Police."