НОРМАТИВНО-ПРАВОВЕ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ТА ЮРИДИЧНІ ПІДСТАВИ ЗАСТОСУВАННЯ ПРИМУСУ ПРАВООХОРОННИМИ ОРГАНАМИ УКРАЇНИ

Security sector reform is aimed at transforming the security sector to increase accountability, efficiency, humanism, the rule of law and gender equality in the structural units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. One of the structural units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is the National Police. Gender parity in the National Police is the key to ensuring the implementation of the reform and compliance with global trends in the development of the State. The purpose of the article is to carry out a theoretical analysis of scientific research on gender equality in law enforcement agencies of independent Ukraine from 1991 to the present. The methodological basis of the study is the fundamental principles of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for men and women in society. The study used the following methods of scientific research (cognition): theoretical research methods (ascent from the abstract to the concrete, transition from the concrete to the abstract), empirical research methods (comparison), complex research methods (abstraction, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction), which contributed to the achievement of the research objective. The stages of scientific research on the problem of ensuring gender equality in law enforcement agencies of Ukraine are identified and substantiated: the first stage (1991 - October 2004); the second stage (October 2004 - November 2015); the third stage (November 2015 - present). It is determined that scientific research on the issue of gender equality in law enforcement agencies of independent Ukraine concerned the legal regulation of the work of women law enforcement officers and their social and legal protection, gendered styles of behavior of law enforcement officers, their psychophysiological differences and gender equality, psychological conditions for ensuring gender equality in law enforcement activities, and peculiarities of development of gender relations in interpersonal communication of law enforcement officers. Three groups of problematic issues arising in the work of a female law enforcement officer serving in the National Police of Ukraine are identified and described in detail. The practical significance of the study lies in the thorough analysis of scientific research on the issue of gender equality in law enforcement agencies of independent Ukraine and the identification of unresolved issues

The strategic development of Ukraine as a rule of law, social and democratic state, enshrining in the Constitution of Ukraine the provision on the highest social value of a person, his life and health, honor and dignity, integrity and security requires the formation of new approaches to the protection of human rights and citizens. The main content and focus of the state activities are human rights and freedoms and guarantees for their implementation. The Constitution of Ukraine imposes establishment and assurance of these rights and freedoms on the state in the person of the relevant bodies of executive power as its main duty. Activities to protect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, individuals and legal entities against unlawful encroachment, ensuring the strict observance of law and public order, the fight against crime and other offenses are called law enforcement activities. Most of the activities on the protection of the rights, freedoms and constitutional freedoms of citizens, their protection against criminal encroachments are carried out by the law-enforcement bodies of Ukraine, which are the largest law enforcement agency in Ukraine. Modern requirements for the activity of law enforcement agencies in Ukraine determine the development of fundamentally new approaches in the analysis of such activities, methods and principles of its implementation, as well as the limits of its impact on the development of public relations in the country. At the same time, a number of issues remain open in the activity of the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, which, at the theoretical and practical level, receive insufficient attention due to the inability of scientists to cover all relations in which law enforcement agencies are involved and which they influence. One of these problems is to determine the role and place of risks in the combat service of the National Guard of Ukraine (hereinafter - NG) of Ukraine and develop methods for their management in the practical implementation of tasks and functions assigned to the NG in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine. The problem of risk management in combat service of NG is determined primarily by the search for alternative and new approaches to reducing the level of personnel and material losses in the performance of tasks to combat and counteract crime in Ukraine. The rapid development of science and technology, the emergence of new social relations lead to the emergence of new technical and human resources of criminals to achieve a criminal purpose in their anti-social activities. Traditional remedies for NG workers, including scientific ones, do not always become effective when performing operational tasks, since some of them are morally outdated today, that is, they rely on developments made in the past century.

Objective: analysis of forms of civil control over the activities of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. Research methods: the research was conducted using general scientific methods, such as dialectical analysis and synthesis, abstraction, etc. and special methods by which the author analyzes the forms of civil control over the activities of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. Results: the article examines the effectiveness of various forms of civil control in the field of law enforcement and compares such activities with the experience of the EU and the US. In particular, the control of US intelligence agencies, which includes the CIA, FBI NSA and others (a total of 15 bodies) is entrusted to parliamentary committees and is carried out in the following areas: consideration of the draft intelligence community budget and control over spending, development of legislation in intelligence activities; overseeing covert operations, approving presidential nominations for director and first deputy director of the CIA, and military intelligence chiefs, preparing reports for the relevant chambers of Congress on specific issues in which intelligence played a significant role. In the Republics of Poland, Romania, Norway, civil control over the activities of intelligence (law enforcement) bodies is also exercised by parliamentary committees with control measures, assessment of their effectiveness, ensuring human and civil rights and freedoms and disclosure within the interests of the state. reports, conclusions and information. Discussion: research of the role of the public in exercising control over law enforcement agencies of Ukraine through the prism of foreign and international experience. The role of public organizations is, of course, important for building the rule of law as a means of dialogue between government agencies and society. However, if civil control is exercised through public authorities, local governments, elected or formed by the majority of our society, the activities of various public associations are formed on other principles and financed from sources that are neither controlled by the state nor under the control of society. Introduction of forms of civil control used in NABU, NAPC, DBR pose a threat of pressure from members of such public councils and public organizations that formed them, on the heads and employees of law enforcement agencies.

The authors of the article outline the legal foundations and prospects for the development of law enforcement agencies, taking into account the state-legal reform in Ukraine. In particular, the concept of state regulation of the system of professional training and retraining of police personnel is considered, taking into account the national component of the countries of the European Union. The position of strict compliance with the requirements of domestic legislation and international legal treaties ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the agreed course on the reconstruction and reconstruction of Ukraine into a democratic legal state of the European Union is substantiated. The possibility of involving the public in law enforcement activities is considered and analyzed. The public's own (author's) vision of forms of public participation in the detection and prevention of crimes is presented for consideration and discussion. In the scientific study, the authors highlight the issue of attracting representatives of national minorities to the ranks of the police for the purpose of reforming and improving its law enforcement activities and strengthening public trust. The article substantiates the need for effective cooperation of employees and heads of the state apparatus of all branches and branches for the purpose of qualitative and objective implementation of the basic principles of the Constitution of Ukraine. The main directions of scientific research have become the countries of the European Union and highly developed countries of the world. It was determined that the need to establish communication with law enforcement agencies of foreign countries is becoming important. The application of the experience of the countries of the European Union is possible in terms of creating specialized law enforcement agencies, expanding the range of powers of the National Police of Ukraine, using the latest resources, and establishing cooperation with foreign partners regarding the training and retraining of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and European countries. Taking into account the conducted theoretical analysis of the state regulation of the system of professional training and retraining of police personnel in the democratic states of Europe, the vector directions for the construction of a legal Ukraine have been established. The significance and assessment of these legal positions in the system of public administration and law as a whole is revealed. Conclusions were made and recommendations were made regarding the coordinated application of the norms of the current legislation in the practical activities of the head and employees of law enforcement departments. Attention was drawn to the need for further scientific cooperation of scientists, specialists in the field of public administration and law.

The legal regulation of ensuring the safety of individuals performing tasks related to operational and investigative activities within the framework of criminal proceedings is a matter of great concern. Informal cooperation with law enforcement agencies is inherently dangerous, particularly for the person who has agreed to assist in carrying out operational and investigative tasks. This is why many developed countries have special programs to protect such individuals. In Ukraine, however, this remains a serious problem, as the issue of ensuring the safety of individuals who have agreed to cooperate with law enforcement agencies under the principles of confidentiality is not adequately addressed by legislative and regulatory acts. Additionally, there is a lack of scientific foundation to develop appropriate changes and additions to the legislation or to create new normative legal acts. Therefore, the goal of this article is to develop theoretical principles to ensure the safety of individuals who have agreed, under the principles of confidentiality, to assist law enforcement agencies in Ukraine. The implementation of the set goal involves solving a number of tasks: 1) determining the basic legal provisions that regulate and define the concepts of «security» and «ensuring security»; 2) developing relevant amendments to legislation, creating new legal acts to research specific risks to citizens’ economic security associated with a decrease in income during the imposition of martial law; 3) analyzing and defining human security in detail, including a more nuanced classification of types of such security; 4) conducting research on individual mechanisms of state regulation of the level of citizens’ economic security during the imposition of martial law. The article, for the first time, distinguishes between measures to ensure the security of a person who has agreed, on the basis of conspiracy, to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies in preventing threats and measures to overcome them. As a conclusion, it is proposed that measures to overcome threats to individuals should be presented not only in the norms of the Laws of Ukraine «On ensuring the safety of persons involved in criminal proceedings» and «On operational-search activity», but also in a separate chapter of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine «Ensuring the safety of persons involved in criminal proceedings and engaged in carrying out its tasks». The addition of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine with such a chapter should be carried out with the simultaneous improvement and «synchronization» of the provisions of the above-mentioned laws with the norms of criminal procedural legislation. This scheme could lead to a significant improvement in the state of legislative regulation of the security of various categories of individuals, including covert employees. Among other things, the mentioned chapter of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine should define: grounds for applying security measures; criteria for assessing the reality of the threat (in this case, the fact of disclosing the data of a covert employee should be considered a sufficient criterion); the obligation of the investigator, prosecutor, investigative judge, court to make a decision on the application of the specified measures in necessary cases; the procedure for their application; and the entities that should take security measures.

The article describes the place of the State Bureau of Investigation in the system of state bodies of Ukraine, in particular, the content of the categories “state bodies” and “public authorities” is defined, the system of state bodies is outlined, and the specifics of law enforcement agencies are clarified. It is noted that state bodies (public authorities) are characterised by their own specific features, among which the following are distinguished: a set of state bodies form the apparatus of the State, and therefore each of them is one of the elements of the integral system of the State apparatus; they are created and operate on the basis of relevant regulations, in the person of one person (citizen) or a group of citizens; each structural unit (state body) is endowed with unique powers of state power; they are created with the aim of performing tasks and It is also emphasised that the State Bureau of Investigation is a law enforcement agency. Therefore, the place of the State Bureau of Investigation in the system of state bodies is determined by its legal status as a central executive body, as evidenced by the specifics of its activities, since it was established for the special purpose of preventing and combating crimes committed by special categories of subjects, as well as war crimes, which is consistent with the law enforcement function of the state and has nothing to do with either legislative or judicial activities; as a law enforcement agency in view of the fact that its main and, in fact, the only task is to counteract criminal offences within its competence; as a state body with a special status, as evidenced by its tasks, powers and the fact that it carries out its activities independently and independently of other executive authorities in the organisational and functional aspect.

The legal system of Ukraine is in a state of reform due to the establishment of a democratic, social, rule of law society. The above mentioned necessitated a rethinking and proper reformation of all public authorities, including law enforcement agencies. The subject of the research is the analysis of problems of modern law enforcement agencies in the genesis of their formation and development. The purpose of the article was specified in the tasks in the following areas: analysis of the current state of the law enforcement system, highlighting the problems of their reform, scientific forecasting of prospects for improvement. The theoretical and legal features of law enforcement activities were adopted as a methodological basis of the research as a type of law enforcement activity, which constitutes the relevant state institutions – law enforcement agencies. Their activities were investigated in the main legislatively recognized areas. As a result, it made it possible to distinguish a list of their characteristic features: state-power specificity; legality; the enforceable nature of the decisions made; the use of coercion.

Цель: to analyze the far-right extremism’s anti- government ideology as an external threat to law enforcement officers. Methods: dialectical approach to cognition of social phenomena, using the general and specific research methods based on it. Results: The relationship between far-right extremism and law enforcement in the United States has a long and complicated history. In 2020, this relationship was on display as both far-right extremists and law enforcement agencies were brought into the national spotlight for their roles in multiple unprecedented events. This research discusses how far-right extremism’s anti- government ideology represents an external threat to law enforcement officers. This threat is discussed through the presentation of 30-years of data on law enforcement officers killed in the line-of-duty by far-right extremists from the Extremist Crime Database. In addition, the research also examines law enforcement’s implicit and explicit support for far-right extremism, which creates an internal threat against the legitimacy of the profession. Finally, policy initiatives that come from, and build upon, prior research are discussed to reduce these threats.Scientific novelty: for the first time, the work substantiates that far-right extremists threaten the safety of law enforcement officers in the United States. Antigovernment extremists, who do not believe that they are subject to the laws of the jurisdiction where they live, pose the risk of escalating to violent acts when encountering law enforcement when they engage in both ideologically motivated and routine criminal activity. In addition, law enforcement agencies who hire far-right extremists face the very real prospect of becoming illegitimate in the eyes of the communities to whom they are sworn to serve and protect. Decades of criminological research has shown that lack of trust in law enforcement makes the job of policing a community more difficult and more dangerous. Although multiple paths forward were outlined that build on prior research and empirical knowledge, only decisive action by law enforcement and policymakers will result in outcomes that reduce the risk of external violent victimization to police and protect law enforcement agencies from being delegitimized by the presence of far-right extremists within their ranks.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the prevention, suppression and investigation of extremist crimes.The article was first published in English language by Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society and The Western Society of Criminology Hosting by Scholastica. For more information please contact: CCJLS@WesternCriminology.org.For original publication: Parkin, W. S., Mills, C. E., Gruenewald, J. (2021). Far-Right Extremism’s Threat to Police Safety and the Organizational Legitimacy of Law Enforcement in the United States, Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 2021, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 1–24. Publication URL: https://ccjls.scholasticahq.com/article/26321-far-right-extremism-s-threat-to-police-safety-and-the-organizational-legitimacy-of-law-enforcement-in-the-united-states

Purpose: to determine the place of the prosecutor’s office in the current system of public authorities and law enforcement bodies. Methods: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, abstraction, concretization, generalization. Results: author’s conclusions about the place of the prosecutor’s office in the modern system of public authorities and law enforcement bodies. Discussion: the general theoretical approaches to understanding the place of the prosecutor’s office in the modern system of public authorities and law enforcement bodies of Ukraine have been clarified. The author notes that according to the new legislation on the prosecutor’s office and the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine in 2016, a gradual implementation of the model of the prosecutor’s office, which presupposes its belonging to the judicial system with some autonomy, is noticeable. It is established that the prosecuting authorities are involved in the exercise of the main function of the judiciary - the administration of justice, but as a representative of the prosecution, that is, there is no neutral position, which is the main feature of the subject of the judiciary. In carrying out the charges in court, the prosecutor actually represents the state in the indictment perspective, fulfills the powers vested in him by law, which is more characteristic of the subject of the executive branch of power. The author argues that an important indication that the prosecutor’s office cannot be part of the judicial branch is its structure and organization with clear vertical subordination and authority. The place of the prosecutor’s office in the system of public authorities is determined by the functions and tasks entrusted to this law enforcement agency and the importance for the state as a guarantor of legality. The lack of a constitutional function of prosecutorial oversight of law enforcement requires state bodies, non-governmental organizations, citizens to understand the new model of its functioning and gradually transfer responsibility to the competent bodies established in the state to ensure law and order. The author emphasizes that a number of reforms of the judicial and law enforcement systems have influenced and changed the role and place of the prosecuting authorities in the system of public authorities. However, the current legislation does not explicitly indicate that the prosecutor’s office belongs to a specific branch of power. Recommendations on determining the place of the prosecutor’s office in the current system of public authorities and law enforcement agencies of Ukraine have been provided.

The article examines the guarantees of social protection of law enforcement officers. It is emphasized that social protection of citizens of Ukraine is one of the primary tasks of the Ukrainian state. Social protection should guard the interests of people, take care of their well-being, which is measured by many components, and not only by the amount of material goods. Social protection is designed to develop guarantees for the population, for its adaptation to market relations, and also to direct the policy of the state and state institutions to the person. Social protection guarantees in our state are an element of the legal status of certain categories of legal subjects. This statement rightly applies to the status of law enforcement officers. It is noted that the legislation of Ukraine in the field of social security of police officers is aimed at protecting their legal status. Modern society requires law enforcement agencies to be highly effective and dedicated in combating crime. Police officers risk their lives and health every day to ensure the safety of citizens. Accordingly, the state takes measures to provide social guarantees to police officers in order to support them financially and protect the interests of their families. Social protection of law enforcement officers is a system of legal relations that arise between law enforcement officers and law enforcement agencies, other legal entities, regarding the provision of employees and (or) members of their families on the basis of regulatory legal acts and from budget funds, as well as other sources of cash payments, in-kind support and services in the event of social incidents that entail the need for their social protection, in order to ensure normal conditions for the employees’ work, as well as compensation for increased psychological and physical stress, service restrictions and adverse consequences of social incidents. The main tasks of social protection of police officers are: a) the possibility of police officers to exercise their constitutional rights to social protection; b) introduction of an effective pension insurance system that will allow employees of internal affairs bodies to have a guaranteed level of income after retirement, which, among other things, would ensure an appropriate level of competitive profession; c) introduction of the principle of interest of each employee (in the process of his active work) in his own material security upon retirement; d) taking into account the results of each employee’s work when determining the size of the pension by establishing the dependence of the size of the pension on the labor contribution (service, incentive, continuous work experience) and insurance experience. The guarantees of social protection of law enforcement officers should be understood as the methods provided for by the Constitution of Ukraine and other regulatory legal acts to ensure the implementation of social rights belonging to law enforcement officers. Social protection guarantees are an important element of the legal status of law enforcement officers. The state provides for increased social protection measures for law enforcement officers, and this corresponds to the nature of their professional service, because they have to perform tasks of increased complexity, sometimes with a risk to life and health. Special social protection measures make it possible to ensure a balance between the state’s requirements for law enforcement officers, on the one hand, and their social needs, on the other.

In Ukraine, where the establishment of a democratic state governed by the rule of law is ongoing, the issue of public control over the activities of law enforcement agencies is becoming increasingly important. The Constitution enshrines the right of citizens to participate in the management of public affairs, which implies the need to involve them in mechanisms for supervising law enforcement agen-cies. Public organizations, as a structured form of civil society, play a key role in ensuring transparency, legality, and respect for human rights in the activities of the police, the prosecutor’s office, and other law enforcement agencies. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively examine the role of public organizations in mechanisms for supervising law enforcement agencies, analyze current Ukrainian legislation and international experience, and identify legal and practical problems in imple-menting the principles of openness and accountability. The authors consider forms of public participa-tion in monitoring the actions of the police and pre-trial investigation bodies, including the submission of appeals, participation in disciplinary commissions, the work of public councils, monitoring of human rights compliance, and access to public information. It is shown that current legislation grants pub-lic organizations significant powers, but their implementation often faces formalism and procedural restrictions. Particular attention is paid to judicial practice, where the participation of NGOs in the protection of public interests is limited by the requirements of justification of powers and compliance with statutory tasks. The objective side of the problem lies in the need to strike a balance between the independence of law enforcement agencies and effective public control. Subjectively, civil society representatives seek to ensure legality and the protection of human rights, without having sufficient legal mechanisms of influence. A comparison with international practice (e. g., in the United King-dom, the United States, Canada, and Germany) demonstrates the importance of institutionalizing civil oversight and creating independent structures for reviewing complaints against the police. The authors conclude that improving the national model of public oversight should include expanding the procedural rights of civil society organizations, strengthening their role in lawmaking, and develop-ing additional forms of participation in overseeing the activities of law enforcement agencies. Public oversight should not be decorative, but a real instrument of influence that contributes to strengthening trust in the law enforcement system and adherence to the principle of the rule of law.

The article notes that limiting the discretionary powers of law enforcement agencies through the implementation of legislative provisions which would detail and set the limits for the application of these powers is seen as one of the primary tasks for these institutions to comply with the rule of law and is considered to be the main leitmotif of the process of improving the regulatory framework for the use of discretionary powers by law enforcement agencies in administrative legal relations. The emphasis is placed on the fact that recently, in the activities of law enforcement agencies, including administrative law enforcement, there have been such negative trends as concealment of offences, corruption, bribery, and dishonest behaviour of officials. Such a situation, which is the result of sometimes unlimited use of discretionary powers by these entities, creates a huge public outcry, reduces the level of public confidence in the law enforcement system of the State as a whole, and destabilises society, which is especially dangerous in wartime. It is noted that the primary task in the process of solving the described problems and minimising the adverse effects of decisions made by law enforcement officials in the course of administrative discretion is to develop a targeted legislative policy aimed at optimising the limits of discretionary powers by establishing the necessary legal framework for their exercise. It is also emphasised that in order to implement these initiatives, it is necessary to increase the effectiveness of measures to improve the rulemaking technique, i.e., the set of technical and legal means, methods, techniques and methods by which a draft legal act is created. The paper proposes that when developing and adopting new acts, it is mandatory to introduce the most complete and accurate definition of the terms (concepts) used, especially those involving the use of discretionary powers. It is concluded that it is advisable to provide for the level of bodies (officials) which are granted the relevant discretionary powers in the regulations.

The article is devoted to the establishment of cooperation relations between law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and Europol; the use of a network application of secure information exchange (SIENA), during the exchange of operational and strategic information. The problematic issues of the implementation of measures of international cooperation in the exchange of information between law enforcement agencies of Ukraine with Europol, while countering a criminal offense are considered. The main mechanisms for regulating the procedure for establishing, putting into operation and operating a secure communication line for the exchange of information between law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and Europol are disclosed. Disclosed the normative and legal content of the category “secure exchange of information”. Taking into account the goals, the author set himself the following tasks: to analyze the mechanism for the safe exchange of information, securing the right of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine to cooperate with Europol; consider theoretical doctrinal approaches to justify the general obligation of states to cooperate with each other. The analysis of the mechanism for the exchange of operational and strategic information in the implementation of interaction between the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and Europol is carried out. The author substantiates the expediency of using the Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA) as the main tool for the exchange of operational and strategic information while countering international crime. The article analyzes the statistics of Europol regarding the number of application messages (SIENA) exchanged between interested parties (including requests, responses to information, etc.). Examples of joint operations that have been successfully implemented with the help of modern tools of law enforcement agencies of the member states of the European Union are given. The problematic issues of the exchange of operational and strategic information using the network application (SIENA) between the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and Europol are considered. Suggestions were made to improve the use of Europol instruments in the exchange of information.

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of public administration features formation in the conditions of strategic changes. The article focuses on the law enforcement agencies’ role in public administration in Ukraine. The main directions of public administration improvement within the framework of European integration reform are considered. Public administration development stages within the framework of state-public relations are determined. The content and state’s law-enforcement function peculiarities are analyzed. Due to major socio-political changes, the importance to develop and implement fundamentally new approaches to state’s law-enforcement function implementation is proved. The consequences of law-enforcement function limitation by legal forms and active use of illegal content forms are analyzed. Firstly, it covers a wide range of public relations and processes through law enforcement activities. Secondly, it promotes non-governmental organizations and citizens involvement in law-enforcement process. Thirdly, it reflects the objective pattern inherent in the rule of law. The law enforcement agencies’ role of a democratic state in law enforcement process is investigated. The law-enforcement agencies are regarded as public authorities empowered to monitor compliance with legislation in a particular defined area of law, to use coercion to enforce their tasks. The content of state’s law-enforcement bodies, their organization and activity determined by law, is revealed. The current problems of administrative decision preparation and organization of law-enforcement activity, in particular anti-corruption, are considered. The public administration elements in relation to each law-enforcement anti-corruption activity entities are considered.

Law enforcement officers all across the world are exposed to violence, confrontation, and traumatic incidents. They regularly witness death and suffering and are at risk of personal injury. Psychiatric sequelae include an increased risk for trauma-related symptoms, depression, alcohol-use disorders, and stress-related medical conditions. Law enforcement officers have been applying for early disability retirement pensions at an increased rate for stress-related psychiatric and medical conditions. As a result, law enforcement agencies are prematurely losing valuable resources, officers with training and experience. Departments have become proactive in trying to address mental health issues to prevent psychiatric disability by implementing employee wellness plans and stress reduction interventions. Programs have been developed to mitigate the effects of stress on law enforcement personnel. Many law enforcement agencies have developed strategies to encourage early confidential referral for psychiatric treatment. They utilize peer support groups and employee assistance programs and develop alliances with mental health professionals. When these approaches fail, a fitness for duty process can be used to identify impairment in work functioning due to psychiatric factors with the prospect of later returning the officer to full duty. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.