29 March 2024, Friday, 12:43
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

How Police Officers Falsify Cases In Belarus

How Police Officers Falsify Cases In Belarus

The confession of a police captain who now works as a taxi driver.

Why does the country with the largest number of police in Europe lacks district police officers and traffic cops, and why suicides in power structures happen more often now? The police captain told the Radio Svaboda why people are leaving the police en masse.

Aliaksandr, 26 years old, Mahiliou. A police captain. Since 2016, he works as a taxi driver

- After school I planned to go to the army, but they advised me to enter the Mahiliou Institute of Internal Affairs. I thought: why not, what is bad about it? And two years I studied in the specialty “Operational-search activity”. I had special gratitude from Shunevich. For the author's song about the service. I wrote it when I was in college. At that time, I still did not know much about the true colours of the police.

After graduation, already at service, I began to understand the attitude of the people towards the police. What can we talk about when people solve some controversial issues and try to do without the police.

I went to work in the neighbourhood. For three and a half years, I served in the district police department. It was all negative stuff throughout the whole period. The job was interesting, I handled drugs cases. But then you come to the boss, and they tell you that you work badly. And if you offer something, nobody listens to you. It doesn't matter that you try to work according to the law, according to the instructions. In the district, everything is decided by the head of the internal affairs department. All by his will.

For me it was a shock that humiliation of employees is regarded as a norm in the police. If I did something wrong, tell me, explain. But I listened to public insults in front of all the management personnel. About 100 people.

If there’s no violation, you falsify it or gets punished otherwise

I quit due to unbearable working conditions. And there are a lot of people like me. A huge number of young people leave the police. Although the guys go there not to assert themselves. When children go to an institute or academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they want to be useful to the society. As they show in the movies - to catch the bandits. Those who interfere with a quiet life.

And then you come, and they order you to falsify administrative cases. The “stick rule” is a big flaw in the MIA system. Take the countries of Europe. If there are no emergency situations in a neighbourhood, then bravo to the police, they are doing their job well. If we have no marked crimes in the area in terms of indicators, it means that the police do not work well. You will be deprived of financial bonuses, reprimanded. I am not talking about moral repression.

PHOTO: RADIO SVABODA

For example, there is a plan regarding pedestrians without flickers. All forces are throw to fulfill the indicator. They make reports, seniors systematize them and report to Minsk.

Of course, it is impossible to say directly that the police are producing offenses. For there is always a crime. Crimes happen every second. However, there are such moments when the district policeman has a good situation in the neighbourhood. He maintains good relations with everyone, he is clean. People respect him. And they tell him - there have been no indicators of moonshine from your district. And if there really are none, where to get them? Of course, somewhere in the private sector it may happen. But we are in the city. With high-rise buildings. Where are the moonshiners here? But there is an order from the chief, and the staff falsifies the affairs in order not to lose the financial bonus.

They find a person who has a criminal record. He has nothing to lose. Former cons or immoral types. The policeman says to him: “I will not press you, but let's detain you with moonshine and draw up a protocol.” Such a fake is made, and so the statistics are ready.

And most of the urban moonshiners are fiction.

Inspectors in police are like the NKVD barrier troops

I was shocked by the police professional training. I mean, there is none. Do you know how much shooting practice we had? Once or twice a quarter, three rounds. The political officer, who misses the target, carries out the training. If someone is absent, they signed for them, that they also practiced the shootings. The head of the district police department is known to be aware of the situation. But why is it beneficial for the management to have non-professional people working for them? This is odd.

No normal medical training. Abroad, the police have a level of pre-medical training like a qualified doctor. It should be so. We do not study this. Instead of practical classes, we write monthly essays on ideology in class.

These are the so-called informing days. On the first Thursday of the month you come to work at 8, and till 12 write all you do is write notes, dictated by the political officer. And then an inspection would arrive, as at school, and look through the notes. If you do not have at least one topic or a newspaper clipping - the bonus is gone.

Inspectors and personal security service are a sort of some barrier troops, like the SMERSH detachments of the NKVD. They work not to protect the employees, but to annoy them more severely. In any way. To show their need. After all, they have their own “sticks” - the plans on uncovering and reprimanding.

That's who should be laid off in the police. Inspectors and police departments of all levels with unnecessary posts. After all, these guys only complicate the lives of ordinary employees who are trying to do their job well. On the one hand, you need to keep order, on the other - to write countless reports, and still constantly shake in front of the inspectors.

The guy died because of the system

In such conditions, the young either leave or such tragic situations happen to them, as with Yauhen Patapovich. I can not be silent about this case. It doesn’t matter if it was a murder or a suicide. If the system worked, it would not happen.

He was an employee who served less than a year. According to internal instructions, he must have a teacher. This is the officer-curator, who is personally assigned to each young police officer. He must teach the beginner practical things.

According to the rules, they must enter the service together and work together. In the morning, they should undergo alcohol test together, listen to instructions, orientation, get a weapon.

What happened here? An employee of the first year. He was left alone with weapons. This is a violation of the order of service by the employees of internal affairs bodies. He should in no case be left alone with weapons.No way. If the teacher, for example, had a day off, then there should have been a different partner. After all, any patrol consists of two people. Whatever staffing difficulties were.

PHOTO: RADIO SVABODA

In the neighbourhood, when we worked, the traffic police is really small. And then we, the police officers, were given help. I myself worked as an ordinary operative, and in the evening I went to help the traffic police for safety net.

Nobody taught this guy. He had to have a trainer who would teach practical shooting, teach how to act in extreme situations, teach psychology.

The other day I was at the train station. A sergeant boy was walking around. I come up, I see fear in his eyes. “Sergeant, where is your partner?” I ask. “Having lunch,” he replies. “At night? You’d better place the holster on your right hip, if you're right handed. After all, you will not be able to grab it from the back if something happens. Happy service to you, and look around,” I told him.

You see, this case is a blow to the whole system. It will be a pity if no one draws any conclusions from this.

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts