International Experience of Tacit Cooperation’s Legal Regulation

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to introduce the system of proposals for improving the legislation of Ukraine in the part which concerns the usage of tacit cooperation with the aim to fulfil the tasks of combating crime (based on international experience) as well as to determine the features of practical implementation of these proposals.Methodology. The methodological toolkit is chosen taking into account the purpose, the specifics of the object and the subject of the study. Its basis is general dialectical method of scientific cognition of real phenomena and also their connections with practical activity of the operative-search units, bodies of pre-trial investigation and the court.Special methods of research, used in the article, are the methods of systematic analysis, comparative-legal and modelling ones. With the aim of evaluation of the research’s results the questionnaire of 1000 operative workers, 1000 investigators and 200 prosecutors is held. The theoretical basis of the study is performed by the latest studies of native and foreign scientists who work in this specific field. Scientific novelty. Introduction of the abovementioned methods allows to propose a system of amendments to the national legislation which will provide the effective usage of tacit cooperation in the sphere of combating crime. In Ukraine, in particular, it is worth to regulate the following elements on the legislative level:1. Voluntary activity of persons who confidentially inform the police (free of charge or on the paid basis) about planning and commission of crimes. At the same time the following elements should be established: a) the setting of order of accepting the reward pay out amount given by the police for the assistance in the crimes’ solution and the perpetrators’ detention; b) measures of the ensuringthe confidentiality of the information’s transmission process and the security of the informants. 2. The inclusion into the process of tacit cooperation of such categories as suspected, accused and convicted persons. The possibility of their release from serving the sentences or mitigation of the sentence should be provided to them in the case of real assistance in identifying and/or investigating the facts of the preparation and/or committing the crime. 3. The system of physical, social and economic protection of witnesses and its proper financing. 4. The possibility of direct participation of tacit employees in the conduction of operative-search activities and tacit investigative (search) actions and their usage
of special technical means of obtaining and recording information.5. The setting of the pay outs and rewards to the tacit employees as those which cannot be taxed.6. The rights of tacit employees: a) for compensation of expenses and losses assigned in connection with the fulfilment of their tasks; b) for the security of the confidential information concerning their tacit cooperation; c) for one way breaking of the cooperation agreement; d) for the access to state secrets in the volume and the extent which are necessary for the fulfilment of their duties according to the cooperation agreement; e) for the state guaranties of their and their relatives security.  7. The possibility of conducting personally by the tacit employee according to the command of the operative worker (an investigator, a detective): a) operative interview, b) operative search, c) visual surveillance, d) obtaining samples for comparative research;e) performing a specific task of disclosing criminal activities of an organized group or a criminal organization;8. The possibility of enrolment the time of tacit cooperation into the length of service only to those tacit employees for whom the cooperation with the operative-search units is the main type of activity.Conclusions.The adoptionof the foreign experience of the institution of tacit cooperation’s legal regulation will increase the effectiveness of the crime counteraction only under the following essential conditions:1. Scientific validity of the introduced changes.2. Encounting the differences and peculiarities: a) of the legal system of Ukraine and other states, b) of the different mechanisms of legal regulation of the same social relations’ application;c) of different traditions, customs and behavioural stereotypes, inherent in the peoples of Ukraine and other countries.3. Significant financial investments into the development and functioning of the institution of tacit cooperation.4. A radical change of the population’s attitude to the persons who confidentially and positively benefit the activity of law enforcement agencies (it is possible only in the case of the real increase of the country's economic potential and well-being of citizens, real provision of their social and legal protection by the state).

Keywords: tacit cooperation;operative-search event;international experience; operative units; pre-trial investigation.