Mechyslau Hryb: Police Disgrace Themselves

It’s not he “informational war”, but the actions of Minister Shunevich’s subordinates that form the opinion about the police.

Speaking on air for the state television, Interior Minister Ihar Shunevich boasted about the results of the “activity” of the Belarusian police in 2016. In particular, he said that since the beginning of the year “the quantity of extremely severe crimes in Belarus has fallen by almost 12%, while the detection rate regarding extremely severe and severe crimes has grown by 3%, up to about 90%”.

“Solidarity” has asked General-Lieutenant of police Mechyslau Hryb to provide his opinion about this information.

– The figure of 90% of detection rate with regard to extremely severe and severe crimes is a very high index. It turns out, only one murder stays undetected out of 10, right? Frankly speaking, it’s hard for me to believe in such high effectiveness of the modern police’s work, — he has noted.

Speaking about the latest statements of the Interior Minister that some “informational war with an aim of discrediting” has allegedly been carried out against the Ministry lately, Mechyslau Hryb gives other arguments.

– I don’t think someone is deliberately holding any sort of an informational war against the police, – he knows. – It’s rather some police officers earned such attitude by their illegal actions. Just recall how they accused a one-armed man of clapping his hands at the protest action, or when a mute person allegedly shouted “Long Live Belarus!”. Such incidents, or rather anecdotes, form the attitude to the police.

As for the initiative of a possible comb-out of the Belarusian state automobile inspectorate with the help of the Polygraph, Mechyslau Hryb does not consider it very effective.

– Actually, all civilized countries apply the practice of regular re-attestation of the law-enforcement authorities, – the expert has underlined. – It should include not just the Polygraph, but the independent commission of different specialists, psychologists who would assess an officer. Ukraine had such experience, when they re-attested militia into police. A one-time check wouldn’t bring any results – new people will come to replace the dismissed officers, but they will become the same law-breakers eventually.