Activities of Detective Units in the National Police of Ukraine: Current Status and Perspectives

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are undergoing a long-term transformation from a system of punitive law enforcement agencies to European-style law enforcement agencies, which should focus on providing services to the population and respecting human rights. One of the areas of the reform was the introduction of the Detective project in the National Police of Ukraine. It should be noted that detective work in Ukraine is a new type of professional activity. However, it should be noted that legal regulation of detective work of both civil servants (law enforcement detectives) and private detectives is absent in Ukraine, although in many countries around the world private detective work is legalized and benefits society. The adoption of the Law "On Private Detective Activity" will allow to establish proper state control over this type of activity at the legislative level and will legalize private detective activity, which is actually carried out, is in demand and recognized by society. However, there is an indisputable opinion in Ukraine that law enforcement activities can be performed exclusively by state structures. And the introduction and operation of private detectives will put an end to the state monopoly in this direction. However, there are also positive points: first of all, several thousand private detective agencies and private detectives must come out of the shadow, pay taxes, report to the police about criminal offenses that are being prepared or committed, provide intelligence, etc. Based on the above, we conclude that legislative regulation of such activities is required for the full work of police and private detectives, including amendments to the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On Investigative Activities", departmental orders and instructions, in particular, to the Instruction on the organization of interaction of pre-trial investigative agencies with other agencies and units of the National Police of Ukraine in preventing criminal offenses. detection and investigation, approved by the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine dated from July 7, 2017, No. 575.