“Candid Camera” for the police

Kharkiv police officers are the most visible police force in the world. This is suggested  by the latest innovation in the work of the law enforcement offices of the Leninsky District Police Station.  Close circuit cameras have recently been introduced for monitoring the work and behaviour of the guardians of law and order. Similar cameras may appear in each police station.

The cameras will make it possible for duty officers to oversee the activities of law enforcement officers and detect any irregularities in treatment of members of the public – claimants and those making requests.

Pavel Yanenko, first deputy head of the Central Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Kharkiv Region, states: “If any employee throws out a claimant, this will we recorded on film. And vice versa, if any claimant is particularly rude, this will also be on record. This is being done for the public, the police force is with the public”.

Police officers will have to observe their own colleagues whom Kharkiv residents have in recent times increasingly accused of rudeness, incompetence and extremely blatant forms of boorish behaviour.

If hooligans get at us, we call the police, but what do you do if it’s the police whose behaviour is offensive? Set up cameras? Monitoring over the guardians of law and order is, according to employees of the Department of the MIA needed. Only it is not a priori logical for the “average member of the public”.

Why with all their technical know-how could the Kharkiv police not organize a broadcast of a video recorder in real time at an Internet café so that anyone who wished could view their professionalism?