KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine's interior ministry is disbanding Kyiv's often corrupt traffic police detachment Saturday and installing a new force — with help from Canada, the U.S., Japan and Australia.
Canada's ambassador to the embattled country says the pilot program will be rolled out nationwide, and doesn't believe putting thousands of ex-cops out of work will stoke resentment and violence.
Roman Waschuk says approximately 2,000 recruits who graduated from their training program Thursday were selected through a rigorous interview and training process.
The existing force has been dismissed, but members under the age of 35 have been allowed to reapply, as long as they passed the screening.
The U.S. has led the way in establishing the reform program, but Waschuk says Canada will be more heavily involved with the arrival of eight police mentors as other cities are added, including Lviv, Odessa and Kharkiv.
Waschuk says he doesn't anticipate blowback from the fired cops, who have a reputation of shaking down motorists to collect cash fines for real or imagined traffic violations.
