Law on police becomes effective in Russia
01.03.2011, 11.21
MOSCOW, March 1 (Itar-Tass) - The federal law on police became effective in Russia on March 1, aiming to facilitate partnership relations between citizens and law-enforcers. In effect, the Interior Ministry creates an entirely new body - police - that will only employ the best personnel.
It was the first time the bill of such level was put up for public discussion. Initially, the document was named "on militia," but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered to rename militia to police, arguing that the old name had become obsolete and no longer reflected the essence of work of the interior bodies.
Under the president's instruction, the document was published at the specially created website, zakonoproekt20-10.ru on August 7, 2010. Hundreds of comments from Internet users came daily. Simultaneously, the head of state, who supervises the reform in the country's key agency, held public discussions of the bill at meetings with public representatives and police officers in regions.
After the public discussion, the bill was finalized and on October 27, 2010, President Medvedev personally submitted it to the lower house of the Russian parliament, given the significance of the document.
On January 28, the parliament approved the proposed legislation, and on February 7, the president signed it into law at the conference with police officials. He called the occasion "a long-awaited event."
Medvedev reiterated that "the new law should be absolutely modern and spell out the rights and duties of police officers."
He also said public opinion was the main criterion of the effectiveness of police work.
The police are a body which mostly closely interacts with the civil society, to a larger extent than other law-enforcement bodies such as secret services, prosecutor's office or court. The police should regularly inform the mass media about their activity and the public organizations, and this should be done not formally but substantively, Medvedev said.
The document spells out the duties and rights of police, their status, the list of restrictions and bans related to service, the requirements for policeman's conduct, and the ranking system (from a rank-and-file officer to a police General).
The main guidelines for police work include the protection of the individual, the society and the state from illegal encroachments on the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, foreigners and persons without citizenship.
Aside from combating crime, ensuring law and order in public places, the safety of traffic and the protection of property and facilities (including on contractual basis), police will engage in expert examinations and forensic work.
One of the crucial changes is the introduction of the so-called Miranda rule (when the police explain to the detainee his right to legal counsel, translator's services, notification of next of kin about his detention and the right to refuse to testify).
It is stipulated that the detainee has the right to one phone call - which, however, is not the call to notify his relatives. A police officer can make the call at the detainee's request. Meanwhile, this opportunity is denied to persons who fled custody or a psychiatric facility, evade serving a sentence or compulsory treatment, or the wanted persons.
Before entering living quarters, a police officer will have to notify the citizens present there about the reasons for entering. However, an exception is made for the cases when a delay "causes immediate danger for life or health of citizens and police personnel, or may entail other negative consequences."
Among the equipment approved for police are "batons, gas means, the means to restrict movement (a lack of them gives the police the right to use the available means for binding), electric shockers, light stun devices. Service dogs, light and acoustic special means, devices for forced stopping of vehicles, water cannons and armored vehicles belong to this group as well.
As the Interior Ministry repeatedly underlined, the key point is to arrange partnership relations between police and citizens. "It will enable each police officer to regard himself part of the society while performing his duties, while the society, in turn, will have a better understanding of the fact that it delegated to the police the functions of protecting itself from lawlessness, including the not very pleasant mission of enforcing in the name of law," Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev explained earlier.
The bill paid close attention to the guarantees of social protection of the police. It states that the life and health of the police must be insured at the expense of federal budget allocations for the corresponding year.
It also sets the sum of allowances to be paid to the police officers' families and the persons whom they supported, in case of the death of the police officer in the line of duty, or as a consequence of the illness developed during the service in police.
In case a police officer is injured in the performance of his duties, with the injury ruling out his further service, he is entitled to a lumpsum compensation in the amount of 60 monthly wages, fixed as of the day of payment.
