Public assessment of the activities of the Chernihiv region police

Only every third surveyed resident of Chernihiv region (37.4%) said that they trust the police. The results of the study show that the level of trust of citizens in state institutions is generally low. However, despite the rather low trust indicators, the police are among the three most trusted public institutions (after the Church and the Armed Forces).

For the first time in the history of the country, a sociological study was conducted, through which citizens assessed the activities of the police. The survey was conducted by the Kharkiv Institute for Social Research with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. The proposed model for assessing police activities will contribute to reducing the pressure of existing indicators on police officers and gradually reorienting their activities to the needs of the population.

The main conclusions of the study in the context of the Chernihiv region:

• Chernihiv residents generally give a low assessment of the effectiveness of the police. Thus, only a third of respondents (35.6%) assess the work of the Ukrainian police as effective. Half (49.9%) indicate its inefficiency, and 14.5% hesitate to answer. Among the biggest shortcomings of the police, the majority of respondents indicated corruption, extortion and bribery (41.7%). This is the key shortcoming and its indicators are significantly ahead of others, such as brutality of police officers (27.7%), weak communication with the population (26.5%), inaction (26.0%), impunity of police officers (25.7%).

• There is a significant fear of becoming a victim of crime in society — 68.4% of the surveyed residents of Chernihiv region are afraid of becoming a victim of any crime at all. Among the factors that cause fear and anxiety in citizens, the most common are the most visible ones related to order on the streets — robberies on the street, drunkenness, physical attacks on people, insults, nagging;

• The study shows that 2% of the population of Chernihiv region became victims of crimes over the past year. At the same time, less than two-thirds of victims of crimes (60%) contact the police. Accordingly, victims did not report a significant part of crimes to the police (40%). The study shows that the most latent crimes include extortion by both criminals and officials — respondents simply do not believe in the effectiveness of the police in this case, so they do not contact them. Most often, citizens report apartment thefts, robberies, and vehicle thefts due to the significant losses and audacity of this type of crime. It is obvious that official statistics on these types of criminal acts can be considered close to the real picture.

• The majority of crime victims who sought help from the police were dissatisfied with how their case was handled (83.3%).

• The study showed significant secrecy and “invisibility” of police activities for the local community: more than half of those surveyed do not know anything about their police station, and three quarters — about the head of the district police department in their district.

The regional section of the study on Chernihiv region can be downloaded .

The full version of the national study can be downloaded at the link: