Sociologists note the growth of citizens' trust in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Police over the past year
The relevant research results were announced during the conference “Law enforcement system of Ukraine: how the public assessment has changed over the year of the pandemic and what Ukrainians think about the state's right to use force during protests” — representatives of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation together with the Razumkov Center sociological service.
According to a sociological survey, more than 21% of respondents “rather trust” the Ministry of Internal Affairs, almost 28% of the respondents. While hesitated with an answer of 11.5% and 9.5%, respectively. At the same time, from July 2020 to the present, the trust/distrust balance indicator has a positive trend both in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (+3.7%) and in the National Police (+5.8%).
Attending the press conference, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko noted that, despite the fact that the level of trust of the population in law enforcement agencies fluctuates, sometimes the numbers rise or fall, and most importantly, that such trust exists.
“Let's count the level of trust in law enforcement since February 22, 2014, when it was zero. Now we see a completely different picture. There is trust in law enforcement. Yes, she fluctuates. However, these figures are at the level of the United States of America. Of course, we would like all police officers with higher education to work with us, so that they were with high incomes and did not think about any corruption schemes,” the deputy minister said.
He also stressed that the patrolmen risk their lives every day, but receive only 13.5 thousand UAH of salary, which is extremely small.
“We have very low salaries. Police officers — about 15 thousand UAH, and the salary of patrolmen — 13 thousand UAH. At the same time, in Kyiv, for example, a taxi driver earns at least 20 thousand, minibus and bus drivers also earn more than police officers. At the same time, they do not risk life and health, like law enforcement officers. We have a problem with staff turnover — young people come to serve faithfully and truthfully, but unfair wages kill motivation,” Anton Gerashchenko explained.
The nationwide survey was conducted from May 14 to 19, 2021 in all regions of Ukraine, except Crimea and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to a sample representative of the adult population by main socio-demographic indicators. 2020 respondents aged 18 and over were surveyed. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%.
