MY TURNING POINT
My turning point is the beginning of my service in the National Police of Ukraine.
My name is Vitalii Naida, I'm a cadet of Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Corporal Police. Apparently, a person reading this essay will immediately wonder why a policeman, even a young man, should write an essay? He must be able to write minutes, to use handcuffs and always keep a severe looks. Am I right? But I have a slightly different position since I became a policeman. I believe that a policeman is about social work, communication, social projects, educational work at schools and cooperation. A policeman is also about active young people, young people who also want to develop. Remember John Snow from the "Game of Thrones," who entered the ranks of the Night Watch. Should modern policemen, like him, "stand on the wall", be detached from the rest of the society, which will never know the names of their defenders. Of course not!
We, the police, do not have to be dogs that protect the flock of sheep from wolves, being hated both by wolves and sheep. Once in Soviet times, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs gave rise to deep hatred of law enforcement agencies in Ukraine and other countries of the Soviet camp by continued rights violations and the shooting of innocent people. And still there are problems with trust in the police in Ukraine that aggravated after the bloody events of the Maidan and the sad role played by the police there.
However, in the process of European integration, there are changes in attitude towards the police. The main criterion for assessing the police activity in Ukraine is the trust of people. I see these changes and I try to illustrate this with my own example at the national and international level. I take part in contests, programs supported by the European Union, monthly forums with the participation of the European Union Consultative Mission representatives, I visited Brussels at the high-level conference commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership, Lithuania at the Youth Forum, the program for youth workers within Erasmus +. With the support of the European Union, I, together with a team of my friends, implemented a project on the socialization of troubled children "Step Up: a school for active adolescents" in December 2018-June 2019. We are now planning to launch another Youth Police Officer project that would enhance the legal education of children and their parents, changing their perceptions of the police as partners and friends.
At all the events, I try to tell public activists from the Eastern Partnership countries that the police should be open to dialogue, to joint project activities with the public sector, to cooperate with young people, including programs of international exchange and programs for youth workers. Police and youth and youth in the police should develop, exchange experience from different countries. It is important to implement mobility programs, as well as academic, for police officers and to involve law enforcement officials in forums, conferences, youth programs.
This is a very close subject to me, moreover, it is my life mission to introduce the concept of "community policing" in the Ukrainian police.