International organizations and foreign missions were trying to push Good Cop, Bad Cop reform into Armenian law enforcement for a very long time. Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan had a new urge for unnecessary, but progressive reforms and early this morning he approved piloting Good Cop, Bad Cop in one Shengavit police station. Police force currently looks for at least six good policemen for the pilot. “I really don’t know how we are going to come up with at list six good policemen” — complains Shavarsh Lomikyan, head of Shengavit police station Human resource department — “these people are trained to be a bad cop, to fight crime with ferocity, so finding a good cop in Armenia is difficult, essentially we need someone incompetent, who failed to be a bad cop.”
Essentially Good Cop, Bad Cop technique means that before beating the shit out of a suspect, one of the policemen will try to be nice to him, offer coffee, a phone call and an occasional hug. US Embassy adviser on police and trafficking, Stephen Malone told ArmComedy “Good Cop, Bad Cop was not invented by American police, but rather by few Hollywood writers. American police loved the effectiveness of that movie technique so much, they started using it in early 80s. I think a criminal needs a good cop, someone with big loving eyes, someone who would feel sympathy, someone you can confess to. ”
Erik Jorgensen of the Netherlands Embassy is glad Armenians are making another step towards democracy: “Good Cop, Bad Cop was amazingly effective in Amsterdam. We had cases when the Good Cop married the criminal to get the confession. So in the Netherlands we really needed to introduce more Bad Cops, cos really everyone was to nice to cute criminals.”
Galust Sahakyan of the Republican party shared his concerns: “Armenia is always ready to make new democratic reforms. That raises our prestige among Europeans, American and even ourselves. But I don’t think the average Armenian citizen is ready to accept a Good policemen. They are more used to the old image.”
There is a great deal of discontent among Armenian police officers too: “I really don’t know how to work with such partner. I don’t see what good a cop who can’t punch the guilty suspect’s kidneys is gonna be. I’m thinking about retiring…I’ll probably bring 5-6 Ukrainian girls, start my own small family business… ” says a 46 year old sergeant.
Ready or not, the new generation of good policemen is coming. If the authorities fail to recruit enough good officers they are likely to force people of other professions join law enforcement. Male florists, kindergarten teacher and ballet dancers are in the risk group.[ad#Google Adsense Horizontal]