The new Law "On Police", adopted in February 2011, provides for remuneration of citizens for helping the police in solving crimes. Until now, this “service” has been just words, since no by-law has been adopted. Finally, in August 2012, the Russian Ministry of the Interior posted on its website the long-awaited draft order.
According to the project proposed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the police will pay for the assistance of citizens in the disclosure of serious, especially serious, or crimes that have received great publicity. The “prize” may be paid to persons who assisted the investigation, provided reliable information that contributed to the disclosure of the case or the detention of criminals.
It is immediately worth noting that the payment will not be made if the help was not significant enough to solve the case - who and by what criteria will determine this significance is not specified. If several people helped to solve the crime, the assigned amount will be distributed differentially, that is, the role of each volunteer in the capture and the significance of the information provided will be taken into account.
Not all citizens will be able to receive a reward - the order will not apply to law enforcement officials, regulatory organizations (the Federal Penitentiary Service) and their relatives.
The award is assigned to the heads of the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the regional, interregional and district levels, the Minister of the Interior and his deputies. The maximum amount of remuneration depends on the position: regional leaders can announce a bonus of 500 thousand rubles, deputy. Minister - up to three million, Minister - over three million.
Premiums will be paid at the expense of federal funds, in the budget of 2012, as well as for the planning period of 2013 and 2014, 285 million rubles were provided for these purposes annually.
Until now, there was no institute in Russia for appointing a prize for assistance in solving crimes, while in many Western countries this is a common practice. The initiative to pay remuneration arose earlier, but inevitably faced with the skepticism of human rights defenders. In their opinion, the lack of a transparent payment scheme will not allow tracking who will be paid the amount, which will cause a lot of abuse.
