‘After Yury Zakharenka, Military Commanded Police, Many Professionals Left Then’

The story of a police lieutenant colonel who did not serve in the police till the age of retirement.

Why do district policemen catch “drunks” and “pipsqueaks” instead of preventing crimes?

Why in the country with the largest number of policemen in Europe is not enough district policemen and traffic cops, and suicides in the law-enforcement agencies happen more and more often?

The police lieutenant colonel, who did not serve in the police till the age of retirement, told his story to Radio Svaboda.

Dzmitry, 44, Minsk

Lieutenant Colonel of Police. Works as a security guard in the bank.

After Zakharanka, the military began to command the police. Then many professionals left.

- I regret not having left earlier, resigned from the post of senior operational duty officer of the Savetski district police department. In the rank of a lieutenant colonel.

I graduated from the Radio Engineering Institute in 1995, and in my last year I had the opportunity to go to the information center of the city department of internal affairs.

The image of the police then was different. The police knew the limits of what was permitted. Then even walked without batons. They appeared only at the first rallies. I remember 1995, the first clash at the old television center. And then we were given batons. It was a wonder. No helmets, no shields - nothing.

Then everything began to fall apart. When Yury Zakharanka was removed and the Sivakovs and others arrived. Better not to recall this. That's when many left. The “wolves”. Serious operatives officers. Not because of political reasons, but because it has become harder to work. After all, the police and the army are different things. And if an army colonel comes to command the police, this is the end (in 1999, military officer Yury Sivakou was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs - edit.). There is an order - and you dig starting from the fence ending at lunch.

They practically began reformatting the system. If earlier professionals made it to the top, then from the beginning of the 2000s, people who know how to snap a salute began to emerge. Those who perfectly fulfilled the orders of the leadership. Previously, it was possible to defend one’s opinion before the boss. Now the higher you are, the harder it is to do.

Well, what has changed in the service? Here there are traffic cops, district police officers, operatives. They have their own responsibilities. And then a rally is held - and the entire police department is put on buses and taken to the city center. Although riot police in equipment works there, there are many internal troops. And people who have nothing to do with the rally sit there for hours for some unknown reason.

I do not exaggerate about the entire police department. There remains only a duty team, a couple of people in patrol and traffic police. They summon all the rest, even those who have a day off. This has been the custom since the 1990s. It will be so. After all, the leadership has remained since then, and it does not know how to work differently.

In my eyes, the district policeman led an armed criminal out of the apartment

A district police officer must be the face of the police. The first person in the system to face ordinary citizens. In principle, it was so before.

When I worked in the Partyzansky district police department, there were two district police officers who worked for 20 years. So every dog knew them. Generally any person. I witnessed how a district policeman led a gangster out of the apartment. The gangster was supposed to be detained by armed riot police. Everyone knew that the criminal had weapons, that he was dangerous. But the district police officer says: “Guys, do not do anything. I will handle it myself.” He went to the apartment and led the bandit by the ear. And he shouted: “Petrovich, let go. Forgive me, yes, it’s me to blame.” This is how a district police officer should work, in my understanding. So that even the gangsters respect him or her.

Now, if the district police officer takes up duty, he has a huge pile of paperwork. He has no time to get acquainted with the population. There are also calls, family conflicts, during the shift. Because of the sore shortage of staff, he goes on calls alone. This is prohibited by internal instructions. But what are the options?

And now he will work for 5-7 years at best - and he leaves. The personnel turnover among district police officers is impressive. I am sure that there is no district police department properly staffed with officers. Not on paper, but really.

The more offenses, the better

A big vice is a “stick” system that has remained since Soviet times. A “stick” is an offense protocol. There are unwritten plans for a number of protocols. But before that, the most adequate bosses did not pay such importance to them, since the number of protocols does not indicate anything. It is like the work of a system administrator. A good admin is the one who doesn't do a damn thing in the workplace. A good district police officer is the same - there is silence in his neighbourhood, and he also sits and doesn't do a damn thing. After all, he does a good job. He prevents. People know about it. Well, that's ideal, of course.

But the stick system creates a situation, when they constantly catch drunks in the neighborhood, it’s dirt everywhere and dogs’ poop. What kind of a district officer are you if you have such a mess? In fact, with such protocols, you sign for your incompetence.

These protocols are needed only for the sake of statistics, and so that the bosses can report on what works effectively. In fact, this only creates the appearance of the work done. It costs a lot to a district police officer. For each call, he must write a detailed report. How did it happen before? There came a call that youngsters gathered near the entrance and smoke. Well, you go, talk to them, warn. I wrote in a journal that I had a preventive conversation. Everything went well.

Now you write a report about such a call. Who, when, came where with whom, with whom the conversation was held, full names. Instead of quickly and qualitatively sorting out the situation, so that the people would understand that there is the police, he writes a large report. And then he himself checks this report, issues a refusal to initiate an administrative case. A lot of time, a lot of paper written off. And no one needs all this.

Instead of shooting practice, we listen to a bullshit about the feat of the Soviet people

Not only is the police loaded with bureaucratic paperwork, instead of training, they are engaged in an unnecessary and very formal ideology. Monthly classes on ideology. This is the heritage from the Soviet times. Why invent something new, if there is a well-forgotten old stuff?

Earlier, they wrote theses of the 27th Congress of the CPSU, and now - the 5th “All-Belarusian Assembly”, or the annual message of Lukashenka. And from year to year, under the dictation of the political officer, the police write about the greatness and heroism of the Soviet people in May, about the liberation of Belarus from the German fascist invaders in July. Same stuff.

Instead, it would be more interesting to call the old operative, so that he told some tips, conducted a master class. Well, it's really useful.

Today, shooting is less frequent than classes with ideology. When I left, the shooting practice was held twice a year. If now it’s once a quarter - then it is often. If we told the Americans that we have three bullets fired every four months, they will be surprised. Like, what are you doing in the street at all? We at a time had shooting practice at least once a month, without limits. Everyone shot as much as they could. Together we could spend half a box of cartridges. We fired from a machine gun, from a pistol, even from grenade launchers. At least we were taught something.

Yes, we also had political leaders in the 1990s. But a lot of time was given to practice. Since the 2000s, ideology and politics have started.

Everyone understands that this is bullshit. However, people who have almost nothing, are afraid that something else will be taken from them.

The image of the police is already the lowest of the low. I fear the times when policemen will be beating in the street for what they are doing

Everyone says that we have a lot of police. Nothing like this. The police that work “on the ground” is very small. There is a bad shortage. And soon it will be even worse. Whom we really have a lot, these are uniforms in the Ministry of the Interior. That's where the states are inflated unthinkably. Political officers, personnel management, rear services. There are a lot of them. And each of them, to justify their existence, must produce a result. And where can he get it? Forward, “to the ground”. As inspectors, they disturb ordinary policemen and traffic cops.

It is mostly because of these inspections that I left the law-enforcement bodies. If an office checker comes to you and teaches you how to do your job, this is ridiculous.

If the ministry is reduced by 80%, it will not affect the criminal situation. No. The same is with the Minsk city and regional departments of internal affairs. They can also be cut in half. People are needed “on the ground”, and not in the offices.

Against the background of the fact that professionals in the police do not remain, the image of the department has already dropped below the lowest.

And it is formed not only by the the minister’s demeanors. Have you seen the photo, how Shunevich violates the rules of the road and parks where he wants?

We are taught that the truth is always with the policeman. Recently, at the intersection, I almost hit the traffic police car that was driving on a red light. Without beacons. Well, I was outraged. To which the traffic cop said to me: “Do you not see that I am a traffic police officer?” In the 1990s there was no such thing. There were other moments. They took more bribes. But there was no such impudence. Now the practice is that the police are always in white, even if it is in black. And it comes from the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

And I am very sorry that I did not leave the police earlier. It got to the point that my wife woke me up at night, because I was managing the teams at the police department in a dream. I realized that another couple of years - and I will become an idiot.

I adapted to the civil life for a long time. But then the world gained color. It turned out that it consists not only of bastards, but also of normal people. Oddly enough, there are many of them.