Ukraine’s State Traffic Police (STP) has long been viewed as one of the most enduring symbols of state corruption in the country. They alleged taste for bribes and apparent lack of interest in making Ukraine’s treacherous roads any safer are the stuff of legend, and grim new statistics citing record numbers of car-related deaths finally provoked a high level response in late 2007 from the President. At the time Yushchenko launched a very public assault on the STP, warning officials at a summit meeting: “If the situation does not improve in the next two months I will insist on personal responsibility for the situation among STP administration heads in certain regions.”
This frontal assault and public dressing down has led to a number of initiatives designed to wipe out the endemic corruption which is thought to undermine the work of the STP and radically improve roads safety. The most visible element of this trend has been the appearance of more and more traffic cops on the streets, as the STA adopts a high visibility campaign.
Multiplying traffic police
Since January 10 the number of traffic police officers on patrol at any given time has risen from 4,500 to 6,000 nationwide, while 300 mobile groups are on constant alert to react immediately to incidents. Special Berkut detachments have also been enlisted to aid traffic police when dealing with criminal cases.
In a bid to break up long-established professional networks and the corrupt practices they are thought to breed, large numbers of lower level traffic police officers have also been moved around the country in recent weeks and placed far away from their former colleagues and superiors. Kyiv in particular has recently received large numbers of traffic police from the Donetsk region. It is thought that staff working in new structures as part of a chain of command they do not have a prior relationship with will be less likely to accept bribes or seek to extract them.
This is not the first time that the country’s traffic police force has been targeted as part of reformist crusade. During Yushchenko’s post-revolutionary presidential honeymoon in early 2005 he made the STP the focus of public attention when he dramatically abolished it and attempted to restructure the service into two separate wings. Despite initial public enthusiasm for the scheme it came to nothing, and Socialist Party Minister for Internal Affairs Vasyl Tsushko reestablished the STP, citing a sharp rise in the number of accidents.
Europe’s deadliest roads
The number of Ukrainians dying in car crashes has rising steadily in recent years. 35,000 have been killed in road accidents in the past five years, making the country’s roads among the most dangerous in Europe, with as much as eight times as many fatalities witnessed in many western European countries.
The Ministry for Internal Affairs confirms that in 2007 road and traffic accidents claimed the lives of 9,500 people and left 77,000 injured, which represented a 20% jump on figures for 2006. Speeding and drink-driving are thought to be among the major causes of this wave of deadly crashes. Traffic police officials also complain that many Ukrainian drivers routinely ignore existing traffic regulations are cause many avoidable accidents through careless driving.
Among the more bizarre suggestions to have appeared in recent weeks as plans to restructure the work of Ukraine’s traffic police gathered pace was the idea put forward by Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko. Two time national police chief Lutsenko was quoted in the Ukrainian media advocating the introduction of special incentives for traffic police who arrest drivers of luxury cars. He was quoted as offering UAH 50 for every jeep apprehended, and a further UAH 80 for every Lexus, reflecting the widely help opinion that many of Ukraine’s richer citizens consider themselves above the law.
Many drivers complain about the continued existence of an informal two-tier system among the country’s traffic officials, many of whom are thought to be far more ready to stop cheaper or middle-priced vehicles while often letting blacked-out luxury cars pass by unmolested regardless of their violations. This remnant of the lawless 1990s has created a sense of bitterness among many Ukrainian drivers, and any attempt to target the top-end vehicles of Ukraine’s tiny, ultra-wealthy elite would no doubt prove popular with the electorate but would also prove a point of contentions among the powerful people most likely to be effected.
A financial deterrent
One strategy which has been proposed by the President to deter dangerous drivers is the introduction of far higher fines for standard violations. Existing fines of as little as UAH 8 are widely considered to offer little in the way of a deterrent, and Yushchenko has sent a bill to parliament for approval which would see the average standard fine raised to UAH 85-100, with more serious violations being subject to fines of up to UAH 1,700.
Traffic police also hope to equip Ukraine’s roads with video closed-circuit TV to catch reckless drivers on film. Officials have also requested better cars for mobile police groups and secure higher salaries for officers who are expected to chasing and apprehending drivers at high speeds.
Losing their licences
Of all the attempts to reform the work of the STP, the measure that has caused the biggest outcry has been the new policy of confiscating offending drivers’ licences and forcing them to attend court proceedings in order to secure its return. In the past many drivers have simply refused to turn up when summoned to appear in the country’s courts, and this new policy is a dramatic way of guaranteeing their attendance. However, it has caused a storm of protest and been questioned legally. Dmytro Zhivilo, the deputy head of the National Taxi Drivers’ Trade Union, claims that it is illegal officers to remove licences, arguing that only a court has the right to deprive the owner of their licence. “Probably these measures will genuinely reduce the number of traffic violations, but nevertheless from a purely legal point of view they are illegal,” he adds.
Deputy Interior Minister Oleksandr Savchenko confirms that initial results suggest improving situation on Ukraine’s roads. In the first weeks of January the number of accidents fell by 20% on figures for the same period in 2007, with the death toll down by 107. Since the start of the new clean-up campaign nearly 170,000 traffic violations have been recorded, 31,000 of which have been for driving under the influence of alcohol.
An excuse for higher bribes?
Kyiv citizen Serhiy, who has been driving for more than 20 years, says he remembers numerous previous attempts to reform the country’s traffic police and remains sceptical that this latest drive will produce anything other than an increase in the standard bribe demanded by roadside cops. “I am afraid that it will only lead to bigger bribes,” he shares, adding that officers still seem to be dividing driving violations into those that are profitable and those that remain unprofitable. He argues that violations of parking rules are considered unprofitable because they involve a large amount of paper work and produce small fines. “Violations by pedestrians are not even taken into account at all,” he adds.
Taxi union official Zhivilo agrees, stating: “The fines have to be increased without doubt; because a punishment is only really a punishment when it is noticeable. But it should be accompanied by very strict controls over the work of the officials responsible.”
“The traffic police presence has clearly increased in recent weeks, and I can confirm this seems to makes a lot of drivers more careful,” comments Serhiy Yatsenko of Avis Ukraine car rental service. He believes there is still much room for improvement in the work of the traffic police, not least in terms of their response time to accidents.
Yatsenko suggests the creation of an internal force within the STP to fight corruption on a national level, using modern technologies such as CCTV cameras to trap corrupt officers. He is also an advocate of better terms of employment for state traffic police, and calls on the government to find ways of motivating traffic officials to act according to the law. “We should make taking bribes dangerous,” he reasons.
