RA Prime Minister: The process of forming the Ministry of Internal  Affairs will begin soon

ArmInfo.Reforms of the judicial and legal system are the most important task of the Armenian government. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this on February 8  at a meeting dedicated to reforms in the police system.

According to him, the process of forming the Ministry of Internal  Affairs will begin in the near future. This year, tangible results  are expected in the formation of the patrol service. This process has  already begun, and at the meeting it will be necessary to decide on  solutions for urgent tasks. The program, as the Prime Minister  recalled, was somewhat delayed due to the hostilities. Today, the  head of government continued, it is extremely important to complete  this part of the project on time.

Note that one of the areas of reform will be the creation of the  Ministry of Internal Affairs, which will develop policy and bear  political responsibility for the reform process. The initiative  proposes to retain the post of chief of police, provided that he will  be appointed by the prime minister at the proposal of the minister.  It is envisaged to distinguish between civilian service in the police  and military. For example, the Visa and Passport Office and the  Investigation Record Center will become a civil service. It is also  planned to create a Patrol Service and a single operational control  center. This will happen as a result of the merger of the Traffic  Police unit and the patrol service. It is also proposed to include in  the structure of the Ministry the Center for Financial Monitoring of  the Central Bank, as well as to include the functions of the  Migration Service in the new organizational and legal structure of  the police. As part of the reforms, it is envisaged to reorganize the  internal troops into the National Guard, which, if appropriate, will  be able to participate in maintaining public order, to ensure the  protection of objects of strategic importance (the functions of the  Main Directorate of State Protection are transferred to the National  Guard). It is envisaged that the National Guard will participate in  the prevention and suppression of riots, in the implementation of  anti-terrorist measures, in ensuring the legal regime of martial law  and in emergency situations, in assisting in search and rescue  operations in case of natural disasters or man-made disasters, in  ensuring the safety of transportation special cargo.

Let us recall that the goal of the reform is to transform the police  into a modern, specialized and technically equipped, respected and  reliable law enforcement force, to create an image of a policeman  inherent in a democratic rule of law. To achieve this goal, it is  proposed to solve a number of issues, in particular, to revise and  reform the system of training and professional development of police  officers in terms of both the content of the program and the method  of training, to create an executive body with mechanisms for  developing and implementing policy, accountability and civil  oversight, and also carry out a structural and functional analysis of  the police service in line with changes in the reform guidelines.