Police Reform

Regular meeting of the Council of the CIS Ministers of Internal Affairs

The 41st Regular Meeting of Council of Ministers of Internal Affairs of CIS participating-states took place on 10 September 2013 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The First Deputy Minister of internal affairs Mr. Nurillo Oripov, the Head of International Cooperation Department of the MIA Mr. Tokhir Normatov, the Deputy Head of the Main Information Centre of the MIA Mr. Alisher Rabiev, and Police Reform National Liaison Officer of the OSCE OiT Mr. Khaydar Mahmadiev have represented Tajikistan in the meeting.

There were all heads of the MIAs of all CIS participating-states, management staff of the Coordination Office on countering organized crime and other serious crimes in CIS area, as well as the CIS Executive Committee and Antiterrorist centre of CIS participating-states in the meeting.

A Concept of development of the cooperation amongst the CIS MIAs until 2020 was approved during the meeting of the Council. Also, a number of other cooperation issues, the most relevant in the fight against crime in the CIS space, was reviewed at the meeting. It was held in a friendly and business environment, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust.

Then, the heads of delegations have visited the Residency of the President of Kazakhstan in Astana “Ak Orda” and met with the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr. Nursultan Nazarbaev, who noted during his speech that it has been already three years for serious reforms carried out in the law enforcement system of Kazakhstan. Personnel appraisal was held, for which purposes a Public Council was established under the President, which considers candidates of all heads of the ministries and agencies of Kazakhstan, from the heads of departments and individual subdivisions, and only after the review of the Council, the decision on the candidate appointment is approved by the President. Meanwhile, the social security of police staff has been rapidly increased in Kazakhstan. Salaries and other remunerations of police became equated to the military’s ones. Currently, the drafts of the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedures Code, and the Criminal Executive Codes are under consideration, but it has been already decided to transfer the penitentiary system to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The President of Kazakhstan had also informed about the changes in the quality performance appraisal of the law enforcement agencies. Since 2011 the new system for the complaints and crime information accounting had been introduced in Kazakhstan, and as a result, the quantity of the registered crimes had increased to 240,000 in 2012, compared to 130,000 in 2011. There are about 270,000 crimes registered in Kazakhstan for the past 7 months of 2013, but the crime level did not go up in the country. As the President of Kazakhstan has mentioned, latent crime has been abolished.

During the trip, the MIA delegation from Tajikistan paid a visit to the Operational Management Centres of the MIA of Kazakhstan and Astana, and learnt its activities. The advanced computer technologies, scientific recommendations and achievements of technical progress are used for the works of the centre. The centre maintains a permanent connection with mobile duty squad during the service, getting reports on situation changes, news on committed crimes in due time, description of wanted criminals, stolen property and other relevant operational information. At the moment, there are 273 video surveillance cameras are installed in Astana. They operate 24/7 in three shifts. All transport vehicles are equipped by GPS system.

The MIA Operational Management Centre collects and analyses information, tracks the situation in the regions and assumes management only if required (search of criminals by “hot on the traces of,” the car theft and etc.).

In compliance with the agenda, the Tajik delegation after the meeting had visited the Forensic Operational Department, the Department of Migration Policy, the Committee of Administrative Police, and Information Analytical Centre.

Moreover, the MIA delegation of Tajikistan has also visited the Committee on legal statistics and special accounting of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, whereas the detailed information of the Chairperson of the Committee Ms. Aytpaeva S. concerning the electronic system of registration of petitions and reports on crimes and incidents, was presented to the members of the delegation.

The scheme of the electronic registration works as follows: the duty squad enters into an electronic database of the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records information regarding the received petition, which in the meantime, is available on the workstations of the supervising prosecutor and departments. The information is displayed on the similarity of the current book for the registration of petitions.

Initially, the project was approved in the internal affairs agencies of Pavlodar region and Astana city in the first half of 2010. The results of the experiment have shown its positive impact on the accounting and registration activities as a whole, as well as on the quality of institutional control and prosecutorial supervision. Since 1 January 2011 the project has been functioning in all the MIA departments of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The efficiency of application processing significantly had increased, while the number of procedural decisions taken in the period of more than 3 days has been decreased. A quantity of residue of unresolved claims also reduced, encouraging their better, more complete and objective test.

Conditions complicating the review of applications and reports on crimes are minimized. The amount of time for possible un-procedural contact of officials with the applicants and offenders has also been reduced, which is one of the factors for preventing corruption phenomenon.

The possibility of observing the dynamics of the registration statements and reports of crime in real time made it possible to undertake timely and adequate measures for the crime prevention, not waiting for the results of analysis of monthly and quarterly reports.

The MIA Department for the protection of women from violence was also visited during the trip, where the MIA delegation from Tajikistan was familiarized with implementation progress of the Regulations of cooperation of the state agencies, organizations and public associations, dealing with the issues of violence against women, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Crisis Centers to provide assistance to women - victims of violence, are established within all local bodies of executive power of Kazakhstan. The Centers are obliged to provide the necessary assistance to victims of domestic violence.

The territorial Shortandinskiy and Burabayskiy departments of internal affairs were visited as well.

The experience of Kazakh counterparts on the police reform will be applied during the forthcoming police reform in Tajikistan.