Odesa on the eve of 2nd of May anniversary: EUAM Odesa Regional Coordinator’s cautious optimism
"The major task of these dialogue police officers, who are well visible in the crowd wearing bright reflective vests, would be to establish normal communication with the event participants, be it a march, demonstration, sport event etc."
British national Paul Kirwan has been appointed EU Advisory Mission Ukraine (EUAM) Odesa Regional Coordinator slightly over 2 weeks ago. The mission is assisting Ukraine in reforming civilian security sector. During such a short period, Mr. Kirwan has held dozens of working meetings with the counterparts responsible for security in town during the season of highest tensions, i.e. early May. Radio Liberty is the first to interview Paul Kirwan. Among others, we talked about his “cautious optimism” towards 2nd of May 2014 and 9th of May Victory Day commemoration events, and the so called “Scandinavian model” [of public order] that is being implemented by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.
EUAM has been supporting the National Police with the restructuring, improvement and optimization of the police’s criminal-investigation practices through the establishment of detective departments. See here the progress so far
