Serving summons is an additional burden. Police are ready to assist, but they will not physically serve them - Head of National Police Vyhivskyi.
The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Ivan Vyhivskyi, said this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, Censor.NET reports.
"The week before last, one of the draft laws on mobilisation was submitted to the parliament, but it received comments and was returned for revision. There are a lot of opinions, statements and comments about the serving summonses by police, and some figures periodically voice the idea that the police should be mobilised and obliged to serve summonses without the involvement of the TCC," Vyhivskyi said.
He noted that the police assisted the TCC as much as possible in establishing the location of fugitives and, in accordance with the powers and with the necessary documents from the TCC, to bring such persons to them.
"But serving summonses, joint patrols are an additional burden, and we do not have the resources to put a police officer next to every TCC employee. We stand at checkpoints, perform our duties every day, including functions that are not typical for the police," the police chief stressed.
According to him, the police are ready to help, but they will not personally go out and hand out summonses. At least until the law establishes such a norm and it is determined by the police function.
Vyhivskyi also added that if the law establishes a standard for the delivery of summonses by police, there will not be enough people.
"In fact, we have 98,000 police officers in service. Of these, just over 20,000 are women. If we take daily patrols across the country, it is about 7,000 patrols involving more than 20,000 police officers," he explained.
The head of the National Police said that since 24 February 2022, police officers have been working in an enhanced version of service, 24/7 in formation.
There are also about 15,000 inquirers and investigators who investigate criminal proceedings every day, including more than a hundred thousand war crimes, and about 20,000 operatives who solve serious and especially serious crimes every day.
In addition, an assault brigade of the National Police "Rage" was created, which is directly involved in repelling the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.
"In general, if we talk about the area where the fighting is taking place, there are about 35,000 police officers on duty there. These are those who are fighting as part of the "Rage" and consolidated units, as well as those who, in addition to the main function of police officers, man checkpoints every day, carry out stabilisation measures, evacuate citizens, clear rubble together with rescuers, and clear tens of thousands of hectares of our territories after the enemy," Vyhivskyi said.
According to him, there are also police officers in Donetsk and Kherson regions. They are there in extremely difficult conditions, under constant shelling - they are located in basements and shelters. At the same time, all units are working, including the police, who go out and record the damage and destruction of homes. This is also important so that people can receive compensation later.
"I believe that everyone should do their job, but we do not have enough resources to go around and hand out summonses," the head of the National Police said.
