Law Enforcement in Ukraine - Contemporary Law Enforcement

Contemporary Law Enforcement

As Ukraine is a largely centralised state, regional law enforcement agencies do not really exist in the way that they do in the United States, Germany or the UK. In Ukraine, the national police service (Militsiya) is directly responsible to the central government, and while it operates with an organisational structure that allows oblast and local metropolitan commands to exist, the regional authorities do not have any major say in law enforcement policy, and cannot affect the day-to-day operations of their local force.

The Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, and particularly the Militsiya, have been criticised for providing private security services to business and industrial complexes throughout Ukraine. While this, in accordance with Ukrainian law, is a legal undertaking on the part of the Ukrainian police, it has become highly unpopular, as the force is largely seen to place priority on responding to private security calls instead of emergency calls from citizens.

In addition to local and national 'police' forces, there are also a number of specialised agencies which operate with more specific objectives in mind.