Prevention priority

Employees of the Internal Security Department (DSD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation recently celebrated 11 years since the creation of their service. This event took place in a purely working order - without public reports on the number of corrupt officials identified or new scandalous revelations. However, there were almost no such people throughout the past year, which is understandable. In March of this year, the department changed leadership - the former main fighter against corruption in the police ranks, Konstantin Romodanovsky, who became famous for his high-profile revelations, left for the Federal Migration Service. The new head of the DSS was Major General Yuri Draguntsov, who almost immediately made it clear that he had his own view on the specifics of this service and, for example, did not consider it appropriate to communicate with “evil spirits” in such a complex and “mundane” matter as law enforcement work. , clearly referring to the recently established concept of “werewolves in uniform.” The head of the department of internal security, Yuri DRAGUNTSOV, told Vremya Novostei correspondent Taras ALONCHIKOV how the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs now sees the state of affairs with legality in law enforcement agencies, what the main problems are here and what are the ways to solve them.

-- At the end of the year, results are traditionally summed up. How, in your opinion, can we now assess the situation with the rule of law in law enforcement agencies?

-- The analysis shows that the number of employees subject to criminal and disciplinary liability continues to grow, by an average of 15% per year. Approximately two thirds of offenses in the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were detected on their own.

- What is the reason for this growth?

- The fact is that several years ago there was a practice when law enforcement agencies could easily not accept citizens’ applications. Facts of offenses by police officers were also often hidden. However, now that the Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliev has demanded that all statements be registered, we are seeing the real picture. They say that police officers commit many violations. Indeed it is. But this also includes so-called domestic crimes - the majority of them. Official crimes, which the department is investigating, account for only about 10% of the total. However, it is worth noting an important trend. The number of malfeasance began to decline for the first time in a long time.

--What are the reasons for this trend?

- In our opinion, this is the result of the purposeful work of the ministry’s leadership to prevent crime among employees. The Minister of the Interior has identified preventive work as a top priority. Regular meetings of our employees with police teams are being held, the institution of surety is being restored (when experienced employees must vouch for a candidate for a particular responsible position, who will then also be responsible for him). A recommendatory procedure has been introduced for the approval of candidates for leadership positions with internal security units. The DRC itself periodically carries out polygraph tests on employees. It is planned that such checks will become mandatory for all police officers.

- How legal is it to use a lie detector?

-- In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the use of a polygraph is regulated by departmental regulations. Polygraph testing is permissible only with the personal consent of the employee. But if a person refuses, it will be alarming. The head of the structure will have to think about whether it is worth hiring this person or entrusting him with a responsible post. A sincere and honest person has nothing to fear. In many countries of Western Europe, once every five years, all police officers are required to undergo a polygraph test.

--What types of crimes are most common among police officers?

— I would like to draw attention to the fact that the legal status of police officers differs from that of ordinary citizens. This is primarily due to the range of powers he exercises. From the point of view of criminal law, a policeman is a so-called “special subject”. It is these features that determine the very range of the most common crimes, which are divided into official and ordinary crimes. Among the first, the most common are “abuse of official powers”, “exceeding official authority”, “giving and receiving bribes”, as well as “official forgery”. In the structure of ordinary offenses, most crimes are of a selfish and violent nature - extortion, robbery, robbery. The group of violent crimes is no less significant.

—Which services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs can conditionally be called the most “criminogenic”?

- First of all, the problematic ones are those who are always in sight, who work with the population - traffic police, guards and district police officers. In addition, these services are the most numerous, therefore the total number of employees brought to justice in them is greater.

--What is the ratio of the number of offenses among ordinary employees and senior officers?

-- The number of ordinary employees is much larger. Criminal activity woven into the environment of official relations is characterized by a degree of organization in which financial flows are concentrated at a higher official level. We are trying to stop the very flow of illegal income, thereby leaving the organizers of this so-called “business” without replenishment. First of all, we do this by “taking out” performers. As a result, there is a significant superiority in the statistics of attracted lower-level employees. Such “shock therapy” in a team for a long time discourages those who have embarked on the path of illegal enrichment to carry out their plans.

—What, in your opinion, are the main causes of corruption in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs?

-- The reasons and conditions conducive to the commission of crimes by police officers are both the low level of their material support and insufficient control by management. The expansion of corruption is influenced by staff turnover, errors made in their selection and placement, and assessment of the moral and business qualities of employees. Changes in personnel composition in the internal affairs bodies in recent years have led to an increase in the number of young employees who entered here to evade military service, as well as people deprived of the opportunity to get a higher-paid job. Such people treat the service as temporary workers who do not have a sense of official duty and the necessary moral principles. That's why they commit crimes.

-What could be the solution here?

- To solve this problem, a whole range of measures of both a national and intradepartmental nature is being developed. Recently, much attention in the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been paid to ensuring a healthy climate in departments, an atmosphere of intolerance towards such negative phenomena. Work is currently underway to increase the responsibility of managers. If previously they were formally responsible for the misconduct and illegal actions of their subordinates, now they bear personal responsibility for the state of their own security in the units entrusted to them. Punishments for misconduct by subordinate employees vary. It all depends on the offense committed.

—What investigations did you find most interesting last year?

— It’s difficult to single out just one thing. Those for which there is a result are remembered first. For example, in 2006, the head of one of the departments of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexander Ageev, was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Moscow City Court. Based on DSB materials, the court proved Ageev and an assistant to a State Duma deputy guilty of extorting and receiving a bribe of $1 million from the chairman of the board of one of the banks.

-- In addition to the fight against corruption, as is known, the DSS is also responsible for ensuring the safety of police officers. How is work going in this direction?

- The position of the ministry is clear - the main thing in the system is an employee who honestly and conscientiously fulfills his duty. The DSS’s task is to protect him from the unlawful actions of those colleagues for whom police service has become a form of business, and also to protect him from criminals. The scope of protected persons by law includes employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and their relatives. The security measures applied by our units are regulated by the law “On State Protection of Victims, Witnesses and Other Participants in Criminal Proceedings.” We apply them in full. This includes personal security, relocation to another place of residence, change of place of work, etc. I would like to note that over the ten years of work of our service, attackers have not been able to implement a single criminal plan against police officers who turned to the department for help.

- Can you give an example?

- There are hundreds of them, but here is the latest one. I just won’t name names, since the investigation is still underway. Several years ago, a criminal case was opened regarding the theft of several billion rubles. The main person involved in the case disappeared. We learned that he is trying to prepare the murder of a fairly high-ranking employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who is directly involved in this investigation. DSS employees had to carry out a whole range of measures, which resulted in the arrest of the attacker.

— In recent years, many police officers have begun to talk about the negative attitude towards themselves from representatives of the DSS, whose main task, they say, is not to help, but, on the contrary, to put the operative behind bars. What do you feel about it?

- You know, a normal person worked as before and works now. He doesn't care whether there is a DSB or not. A policeman who does his job properly is calm. And who shouts “Stop the thief” the loudest among us?