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ABSTRACT
Kazakhstan and Ukraine are the two latest adopters of the broken windows theory of policing first applied in New York City in the 1990s. Both countries embraced the practice despite its declining popularity and widespread criticism in the West. This article explores why and how broken windows policing is mimicked in both countries’ largest cities – Almaty and Kyiv. It shows that there are striking similarities in how various order-maintenance policing initiatives rose to prominence in Western urban areas and later in the post-Soviet context. The expansion of the middle class and the rapidly changing demography of urban areas due to socio-economic transformations popularised this norm-setting style of policing. By expanding policing of disorderly behaviours, both countries also tried to mould the type of citizens appropriate for a state with grand geopolitical ambitions. Kazakhstan and Ukraine sought to improve their regional and global rankings by creating a more orderly domestic environment.
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The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of National Defense University, the Defense Department or any other agency of the Federal Government.
Notes
1 I borrow this characterization from Herbert (Citation2001).
2 Kyiv's population has been growing by up to 1% per year although the country's total population dropped to 45.5 million in 2013, down from its peak 52.2 million two decades before (World Bank data). The population in Astana and Almaty increased in the 2000–2010s even though Kazakhstan's population saw a decline between 1990 and 2010.
3 Interview with Evgeniy Zhovtis, Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, May 2017.
4 Interview with a Kyiv-based activist working on judicial sector reform, Kyiv, Ukraine, August 2016.
5 Interview with a top-ranking representative of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Kyiv, Ukraine, August 2016.
6 Interviews with a representative of a state-funded NGO in Almaty, May 2017 and anti-corruption activist in Kyiv, August 2016.
7 Term introduced by Diana Kudaibergenova at the ‘Theorizing Central Asia’ workshop in Almaty, Kazakhstan, March 2017.
8 Interview, Zhovtis.
9 Interviews with two urban civil society activists, Almaty, May 2017.
10 Interviews with Gulmira Ileoulova, Strategiya Foundation, Zhemis Turmagambetova, Charter for Human Rights, and Tatiana Zinovich, Legal Policy Research Center, Almaty, Kazakhstan, May 2017.
11 Interviews with a non-governmental public policy expert, Almaty, May 2017.
12 Interview, Zhovtis.
13 Interview, a representative of a state-funded NGO.
14 Interview, Ileoulova.
15 Interview, Zhovtis.
16 Interview, Turmagambetova.
17 Interview, urban activist.
18 Interview, Ileoulova.
19 Interview, Ileoulova.
20 Interview, representative of an NGO specializing on legal reform, Almaty, May 2017.
21 Interview, Member of Parliament Mustafa Nayyem, Kyiv, September 2015.
22 Interview, Aleksandr Banchuk, Center for Political and Legal Reforms, Kyiv, September 2015.
23 Interview, Evgeny Zakharov, Head of Kharkhiv Human Rights Group, Kyiv, September 2015.
24 Interview, Nayyem.
25 Interview, representative of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Kyiv, September 2015.
26 Interview, Nayyem.
27 Interview, human rights activist engaged in police reform efforts since the early 2000s, Kyiv, September 2015.
28 Multiple interviews of political analysts, Tbilisi, June 2012. The policy caused Georgia's prison population to jump from 6654 inmates in 2004 to 24,244 in 2012. ‘Public Defender Releases 2011 Human Rights Report’, Civil Georgia, 29 March 2012; ‘Public Defender Releases 2010 Human Rights Report’, Civil Georgia, 4 April 2011.
29 Interview with Eka Gigauri, Transparency International, Tbilisi, June 2012.
30 Interview, top-ranking Interior Ministry official, Kyiv, August 2016
31 Interview, Nayyem.
32 Interview, representative of an international donor organization, Kyiv, September 2015.
33 Interview with two patrol police officers, Kyiv, September 2015.
34 Interview during patrol with two beat police officers in central Kyiv, September 2015.
35 ‘Kievskya politsia protiv taksista khama’, YouTube.com, 16 September 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz-mHuZIMmg.
36 ‘Zaderzhane novoy politsiei p’yanogo militsii’, YouTube.com, 19 August 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPhKCujKG0.
37 ‘Blondinka na dzhipe v Kieve ustroila debosh iz-za neprevil’noy parkovki’, YouTube.com, 6 August 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpNU1pAv9zc.
38 Interview, Nayyem.
39 Interview, patrol officers.