SOME ASPECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONCEPT OF “COMMUNITY POLICING” IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article examines how the concept of “community policing” is implemented in Ukraine, namely in the context of ensuring effective interaction between the police and the community in order to build and maintain a safe environment. Modern visions of this concept of domestic and European scientists are analyzed. It is concluded that despite the diversity of their views, it can be said that almost every author by “community policing” means the interaction of the police (the main purpose of which is to serve society) and the community (which respects the police and cooperates voluntarily) for the sole purpose of effective prevention, the prevention of offenses and violations of public order and tranquility. Based on the experience of the Public Relations Department of the Patrol Police Department, the existing effective mechanisms have been singled out, among which a large place is occupied by large-scale projects implemented over the past 4 years. Namely: “School Police Officer” and “Neighborhood Guard” are implemented directly by the public relations department. The Community Police Officer project was introduced by the National Police of Ukraine and the Drug- Hunters project was implemented by the Patrol Police Department in November 2021. It is concluded that the country’s law enforcement agencies are currently in a so-called “transitional position”, because the state has already abandoned the understanding of the function of the police as an exclusively punitive body. However, this body has not yet been built in a new format, the basis of which is work in accordance with the concept of “community policing”. But it is emphasized that today the only possible way of police development is the creation of a service, the daily work of which is based on the concept of “community policing”. However, until the current legislation is supplemented by a strict norm, it will be almost impossible to build a truly service department regarding the responsibility of a person for insulting a police officer performing his / her functional duties.