Ukraine: ICITAP Kicks Off Country’s First Police Field Training Program

On May 4, twenty-three officers from the Kyiv Patrol Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine graduated from the first field training program - the Mentoring Training Officer Project (MTOP) - in the history of the country’s police agencies. Only one-quarter of the original applicants passed a competitive selection process for the specialty position within the Patrol Police, also a first of its kind within the Department and other police agencies. Women represented one-quarter of the participants selected to be Mentoring Training Officers. Over the last six months, ICITAP-Ukraine Training Team members, ICITAP law enforcement advisors, and Canadian Police Mission of Ukraine advisors designed and developed the pilot program in collaboration with Patrol Police command staff and trainers. The Mentoring Trainer Officer Project is a next step in furthering the professionalism and advancement of the Patrol Police with the context of law enforcement reforms. The international partner cooperation in developing and implementing the project proved to be very beneficial to achieving the desired outcomes. The first recruits to participate in the Mentoring Training Officer Project will graduate at the end of May and complete two months of field training. After the pilot course is completed, the curriculum will be revised, two additional iterations of train-the-trainer courses will be conducted and a master train-the-trainer course developed to create sustainability and growth of the program within the Patrol Police Department. The Patrol Police Department remains the most recognized successful reform effort of the National Police of Ukraine since the 2014 revolution spurred civil society to demand substantive changes in policing. In Ukraine, ICITAP partners with the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) on this project.