The implementation of police reforms certainly requires joint work by the state and the donor community, as well as financial investments. The funding need for the Strategic Action Plan constitutes 88.5 percent of the necessary financial resources. The majority of these expenses are intended to be directed toward launching the Police Guard.

According to Iravaban.net, a concept was developed for the formation of the police’s last pillar—the Guard—within the framework of the 2020-2022 strategy, following comprehensive studies. The studies showed that the dual status of the Police Troops and their servicemen, as well as the combination of internal and external security functions, do not align with the general objectives of the Police.

Based on this, a purely police-specialized service for maintaining public order and ensuring public security was chosen as the most effective model. The measures aimed at its final implementation will be carried out within the framework of the new strategic document.

Taking into account the specific nature of utilizing the capabilities of the police troops, it has been deemed acceptable, while maintaining the approach of the Police Reform Strategy for 2020-2022, to designate it by law as a purely police subdivision, whose organization and operation will no longer be regulated by military legislation.

It is noteworthy that the package of draft laws on “Police Guard” and related legislation underwent a phase of inclusive public discussions before adoption and received positive international expert evaluation. The legislative initiative was also preceded by discussions of conceptual solutions: during 2023, the concept for the formation of the Police Guard was developed and approved.

According to the conceptual approach, the Police Guard will be formed as a completely new structure, not being the legal successor of any police subdivision. With the formation of the Police Guard, the activities of the Police Troops, the Main Directorate of State Protection, the escort unit, special purpose units operating in some subdivisions, as well as units for the protection of persons involved in criminal proceedings, will be terminated within the Police structure.

The functions of the ceasing subdivisions will be newly transferred to the domain of the Police Guard. At the same time, it has been noted that the change in the status of the troops should not lead to the restriction or deterioration of the social rights of its servicemen.

The Police Guard will have territorial subdivisions of direct subordination in at least three regions of the Republic of Armenia (Lori, Shirak, Syunik, which will also serve adjacent regions if necessary), as well as state protection and criminal proceedings protection units (in Yerevan and regions).

This geographical division will help the Police Guard to start its activities with a sectoral distribution scheme, then have a roadmap for transitioning from sectoral preparedness to universal preparedness, which will allow personnel to be involved in serving any function related to the Police Guard.

Under the new model and already adopted laws, the Police Guard has been assigned the following areas of activity:

1) Maintaining public order and ensuring public security;

2) Ensuring the security of buildings and structures of state bodies and organizations subject to state protection by the Police, facilities of crucial importance, as well as the security of transportation of special cargoes;

3) Supporting the security of persons subject to special state protection;

4) Assisting criminal proceedings bodies;

5) Participating in ensuring the legal regime of martial law and the legal regime of state of emergency, as well as in the protection of the population in emergency situations.

With its new functional representation, the Police Guard will not be included in other troops and will not come under the command of the armed forces in a war situation. However, this does not mean that the guard will be isolated from the defense function of the Republic of Armenia; the guard will have a much more targeted toolkit to support the defense function of the Republic of Armenia, which will allow for a higher coefficient of usefulness.

This refers in particular to the protection and defense of subdivisions of the armed forces and other troops, military and other equipment, routes of mass population movement, and if necessary, their escort. In addition, as an exceptional rule, it has been established that if necessary, the Police Guard will also perform special assignments within the framework of military operations in the area where martial law has been declared, which will be manifested in accordance with its preparedness and toolkit.

The “Public Control and Awareness of Effective and Inclusive Police Reforms” sub-grant is implemented by the “Armenian Lawyers Association” through the “Monitoring of Justice Sector Reforms in Armenia” (https://juremonia.am/en/) program funded by the European Union, within the framework of a grant announced by the “Social Justice” non-governmental organization.

The overall objective of the program is to increase civil society participation in monitoring police reforms and assessing impact by providing structural engagement mechanisms, independent assessment, and raising public awareness. Close cooperation and involvement with non-governmental organizations, as well as the relevant subdivisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are planned during the implementation of the program.

This article was prepared with the financial support of the European Union. The “Armenian Lawyers Association” non-governmental organization is responsible for the content, and it does not necessarily express the views of the European Union.