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Ukraine scraps all traffic cops!

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pdanev

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A bribe too far! Ukraine scraps all traffic cops

July 26, 2005

By Stefan Korshak

Kiev, Ukraine - Ever wonder what would happen if traffic cops were done away with and you could drive any way you wanted?

In Ukraine, less than a month ago, that's what happened and things are pretty much just fine.

The story of the "liquidation" of Ukraine's State Automobile Inspectorate (DAI) began in June after President Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Europe politician who led the country's Orange Revolution at the end of 2004, decided to drive to the mountainous for some hiking.

Fighting official perks is a focus of the Yushchenko administration and the former National Bank boss has made it clear he is no fan of either officialdom or officiousness
A bribe bid too many - when it happened to the president he killed off the traffic cops
.

So, instead of travelling the 300km from Kiev to the Polish frontier in a Soviet-style motorcade of armoured vehicles, police escorts and the like, Yushchenko went in an unmarked family sedan.

Big mistake - as any rank-and-file Ukrainian driver could have told him.

Traffic cops halted the presidential vehicle, Yushchenko later fumed at a news media conference, every 30 minutes or so over the four-hour trip. The Yushchenko family's late-model German sedan was, he said, functioning perfectly and he wasn't speeding.

The stops were nothing more than repeated shake-downs for bribes, the Ukrainian leader charged.

"There is more to a traffic policeman's job than collecting bribes," Yushchenko said. "These people are undermining public trust in law enforcement agencies and I will not allow it to continue
'The stops were nothing more than repeated shake-downs for bribes' - Viktor Yushchenko
."

From his subordinates Yushchenko demanded - and received - a plan to dissolve the DAI and by the beginning of July the deed was done, the executive order signed.

Ukraine's once-feared traffic police ceased to exist.

Immediately traffic cops appeared in the media, always predicting mayhem and often justifying bribes on the grounds of poor salaries.

"A traffic policeman receives only 500 hryvnas ($100, roughly) a month and who can live on that?" a cop, identifying himself as Volodymyr N, whined to a newspaper reporter.

"If we received $300 or 400 a month we would do our jobs perfectly," he said, "but now, with no police out there, our roads will become slaughterhouses."

But that's not the way it turned out. Drivers in the Ukrainian provincial cities of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv reported traffic was moving quite normally and most drivers were obeying regulations, even though there were few, if any, traffic cops around to enforce them.

"Just like people have been driving before, breaking the rules when they can, they're driving now," said Arnold Shapyro, an Odessa taxi driver.

"The difference is that now the traffic cops aren't hassling us."

'Driving less stressful'

Despite furious road construction piling up epic traffic jams daily in Kiev, vehicles in the Ukrainian capital have in recent weeks been moving more quickly, and with a good deal less honking and noise, than when the traffic cops were running things.

"To be fair, a lot of people are out of town because it's the summer holidays," said Vadym Chabanov, a Kiev courier rider, "but driving is less stressful because now you don't have to worry about some goon on every street corner inventing violations to hit you for a bribe."

Road accidents in Ukraine average between 150-170 each day, the death toll 20-30 with another 80-100 injured.

The numbers, according to statistics complied by Ukraine's Ministry of Emergency Situations, have not changed since the traffic police handed in their badges.

"It appears drivers are being more careful," said Valery Borysov, a Kiev city official. "In general the road situation is stable."

Well, sort of.

Take the Simferopol-Armiansk highway, onthe Crimean peninsula.

Tearing along

This stretch of road, running through one of Ukraine's poorest provinces, is notorious for voracious traffic cops preying on interstate travellers - usually city folk heading to or from a Black Sea vacation.

But last Thursday motorists were blithely tearing through the table-flat Crimean steppe (on a two-lane road that would hardly qualify as a secondary farm road in the US and probably not exist at all in Germany) in excess of 130km/h, almost twice the posted speed limit.

The only law enforcement visible on the 110km run was outside a shabby cafe in Armiansk: a mannequin dressed in a traffic cop's uniform, holding a sign saying:

"Dear motorist! Take care as you drive. Armiansk wishes you a good visit to sunny Crimea!" - Sapa-DPA
Click to expand...
 
Nice post, I wonder what they will do about the next round of traffic cops there. I hate the traffic cops here in Houston because the speed limits on the highways are ridiculous! The highest is 65MPH. Some places there's a minimum of 40MPH and the only refuge is the Beltway, which isn't that well patrolled because there's no real shoulder for the cops to park :lol: And there you can fly, 70-100MPH on some stretches, not legally of course. :)
 
It'll be very interesting to see how this pans out!
 
What an easy way to solve a problem, fire them all. Looks more like a publicity stunt to me :thumbsdown: First that ridiculous "revolution".. Ok, his opponent was probably bigger asshole than he is, but still, openly asking people from all over the country to come and stand there for few days "don't leave, we will win, I'm the real president" etc.. that was ugly. I was waiting until all this breaks loose and people start fighting. Well, luckily it didn't happen. But now this... Fast decision, people are happy, what a cool president, maybe next time we release prisoners, as prisons are getting too full.

And tens of thousands of people lost their jobs, that's fine, as long as president can travel and not being stopped. I know it traffic police was incredibly corrupt, but how can you solve a problem by totally removing them all.


P.S. I was born and lived 13 years in Ukraine.
 
A weird decision...I wouldnt mind having that happen here though :lol:
 
Hmm, tis a bold movement, but if things work fine without them, then I suppose its okay.
 
alot of times, the reason why people speed and drive dangerously is to piss off the cops. here in the US, people LOVE to do that, my friend does it all the time for the thrill of it since the cops cant hit 130mph as quick as he can.

if you ask me, this could be good and bad. there need to be cops, but not patrolling for speeders. the big problem is people that run red lights, drink and drive, etc..
instead of ticketing 1 speeder, they should just pull out in front of a group of speeders and do that zig zag motion to slow them down with the lights on..
 
i dont know if this the way to solve this (i dont actually believe there is a way to solve this at all, at least not in the short run)

corruption on such contries is way beyond what most people can imagine. maybe it would have been a bit wiser to introduce some radical measure agains traffic police corruption. fire all the local station bosses, put some really tough guys there, do random controls on traffic police guys etc. use some undercover internal agents, if they catch someone that can be bribed fire instantly. make those corrupt traffic police guys scared, maybe also make them go on patrol everyday with a different guy in groups of 3people or so etc etc etc. there are hundred ways to reduce the amount of corrupt traffic police guys, implement all hundreds of ways, a few of those must have some effect. i know that would cost a lot of money, but well, if he really wants to get rid of corruption, there is no other way..
 
Well, corruption is EVERYWHERE! On every level, in every administration. You can't just fire everyone, as new people will take bribes as well. You see, nothing motivates them to not take bribes. They earn too little, work morale.. none. And because everybody else does it, it's kinda justified. Same happens in schools, universities, every institution. Hell, the "wrong" president almost got elected that way.

Traffic cops aren't the ultimate evil, they are same people as everybody else there... I'm not justifying them, I'm saying that this there's no easy way out, certainly not this way.
 
Yeah, the roots of corruption lie much deeper in the system. And god knows how many generations it will take for that to disappear.
 
Yeah, don't get me started on corruption, like MXM said, it's everywhere. Me and my crackpot conspiracy theories about my country, sheesh. :roll:
 
right now a bit of relief for me from corruption, here (in the netherlands) so far i didnt experience any :)
 
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