Activists presented the Handbook on Police-Community Interaction in Chernihiv – Чернігівський громадський комітет захисту прав людини

On June 6, a meeting was held to discuss the implementation of security initiatives in the city of Chernihiv. During the event, the “Guideline on Interaction between the Police and the Community of Chernihiv” was presented.

Opening the event, the program manager of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

Kateryna Dankova

, recalled last year’s meeting, where the possibility of creating a “Security Coordination Office” was discussed, which would become a communicative and informative platform between the police, local authorities and the Chernihiv community. At that time, one of the requests from the patrol police was to organize and summarize information about organizations and institutions whose activities are aimed at influencing and solving certain security issues in the city. According to the Head of the Patrol Police Department in Chernihiv Oblast, Andriy Dumych, having complete information about organizations dealing with security issues would greatly facilitate the work of patrol police officers and would contribute to a prompt response to security challenges in Chernihiv.

Therefore, in cooperation with the Patrol Police Department in Chernihiv Oblast, the team of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights developed , which was presented during the event.

Public Relations Inspector of the Patrol Police Department in Chernihiv Oblast

Alina Palub

noted that it would become a good assistant for patrol police officers. Recalling her work as a foot patrol officer, Ms. Alina spoke about patrol cases that took a lot of time to resolve, because the police officers did not know where to turn or which organizations were involved in a particular security issue. Regarding their mutual cooperation, it was noted that there is a lot of work to prevent violence among young people and everyone was invited to join their work.

The Head of the Juvenile Prevention Department of the Department of Preventive Activities of the Main Department of the National Police of Chernihiv Region

Olga Pankratova

also noted the relevance of the presented Handbook, including in her work, but added that the number of copies should be even greater.

The Head of the Department of Precinct Police Officers of the Main Department of the National Police of Chernihiv Region

Oleg Flugert

noted that this initiative is timely. According to him, this Handbook should be useful to 45 precinct police inspectors of the city of Chernihiv in various working situations. “A similar publication should also be available in the Chernihiv region, because in districts and villages it is more difficult to find contact details of various institutions and organizations,” Mr. Flugert added.

Senior Inspector of the Press Service of the Patrol Police Department in Chernihiv Region

Vitaliy Kopystko

spoke about the events of two years ago. “Even then, at a meeting with the heads of condominiums, the need to develop such a manual was emphasized, indicating the contacts of all organizations and institutions dealing with security issues in Chernihiv.”

Deputy Head of the Municipal Guard

Igor Dedikov

noted the work of the newly created call center at the Chernihiv City Council, the contacts of which should also be added to the presented publication for the convenience of city residents.

The head of the department of interaction with law enforcement agencies of the Chernihiv City Council

Andriy Tkach

also suggested placing a QR code on the Handbook for scanning with a smartphone so that anyone could access operational information, because on paper it may be outdated or inaccurate.

It was not without criticism. Thus, the head of the NGO “Step to Animals”

Tetyana Didenko

emphasized the inaccuracies in the Handbook regarding information and contacts of the KP “Veterinary Sterilization Center”. “I agree with other participants that there should be an electronic version of the Handbook on interaction with the police and the community, since the information should already be outdated after a short period of time. And in the electronic version, you can update the information regularly.”

The head of the NGO for the fight against drug addiction “RETRIEVAL”

Viktoriya Danylenko

supports interaction with the police, which, in her opinion, should be mutual.

The director of the Chernihiv Center for Social Adaptation of the Homeless and Homeless

Mykola Romanov

drew attention to the fact that currently the problem of the homeless has not been resolved by law, and neither the police can do anything with them, nor their center for the adaptation of the homeless (because they have a problem with the lack of territory and the possible danger associated with the health of such a homeless person) – there is an option to deliver such people to medical institutions, but the “ambulance” often refuses to do this (as a result, the last hope remains – to take these people to the regional psychoneurological hospital, which the police sometimes do).

The head of the Chernihiv local center of social services for children, families and youth

Lyudmila Mazur

supported the cooperation of all structures (whose representatives are present at the event), named the independently calculated minimum necessary amount of funds of 1 million UAH per year for the creation of mobile teams that will work in cases of domestic violence (of which about 400 have already been created in Ukraine), which is why they are currently only in the plan for Chernihiv. The head of the social center also emphasized the relevance of the publication of the Handbook and suggested making it also in a pocket format in a larger circulation.

The head of the condominium association “Svyatmykolayivske”

Andriy Dmyterko

thanked Kateryna Dankova for the useful meetings with citizens aimed at strengthening the interaction between the police and the community within the framework of the implementation of the “Neighborhood Watch”, and welcomed the publication of the Handbook, which will help him to have access to all the necessary contacts.

In general, according to the results of the round table, the participants of the event voiced topical issues in the field of security. For example, the appearance of an increasing number of homeless people on the streets of the city and the increase in cases of domestic violence.

Representatives of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights together with the Patrol Police Department discussed further cooperation in developing an algorithm for responding to priority security issues, with the involvement of various target groups, in particular police and specialized public organizations.

The event was organized by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in cooperation with the Patrol Police Department of the Chernihiv Region as part of the implementation of the project “Safe Chernihiv – Result-Oriented Cooperation” with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.