Aleh Vouchak: High wages don't save police from staff shortage

The police still have many vacancies in spite of an increase in wages.

Aleh Vouchak, a former prosecution investigator and chair of the organisation Legal Assistance for Citizens, spoke to charter97.org about using conscript soldiers as police patrols.

“Of course, civilized countries doesn't use such practices. Public order protection is a duty exclusively of policemen, not conscripts. To protect order, one must have necessary psychological skills and know laws. Conscripts must not wear and use weapons, because a special training is needed. Military skills are not enough. They must know how to act in an extreme situation, but most soldiers are guys of 18-19 years old who don't have such experience,” the lawyer is confident.

The human rights activist noted that it was not the only problem.

“Though wages were increased for policemen, the police still have many vacancies. That's why they engage soldiers in guard and patrol service. The police are losing their respect and reputation. The law-enforcement bodies have a bad image. Even high wages cannot solve the problem of staff shortage. The policy of the Belarusian authorities has lead to the situation that people stopped respecting the police. We see ourselves that the Belarusian police struggle only against pensioners and opposition activists,” Aleh Vouchak said.

We remind that a squadron of guard and patrol service of the interior troops will begin to patrol Baranavichy on October 1.