Abstract: The research subject social relations connected with voluntary participation of citizens in the activities aimed at public order protection. The research object is the activities of persons with a status of an unofficial collaborator of the police. The authors consider such aspects of the topic as interaction between citizens and law-enforcement agencies including the police; study the content of the term “cooperation” considering it in the context of socio-economic relations; give attention to the essence of the status of an unofficial collaborator of the police and its problem aspects; analyze the correlation between unofficial collaboration with the police and work with other spheres. The research is based on the complex use of general scientific methods of cognition together with empirical and theoretical approaches. The authors establish the minimum requirements to professional competence of an unofficial collaborator both from the general legal viewpoint and depending on the category of their relation to a particular unit or department of internal affairs body. An unofficial collaborator should have a right to immediately react to the detected crime in case of the absence of an officer and give first aid to the injured, otherwise, the status of an unofficial police collaborator loses its sense.