Press Service
Humaneness and Impartiality Are Important Competencies of Inquiry Officers of Internal Affairs Agencies
October 16, 2011, is the 19th “birthday” of the Inquiry, one of the numerous and important services in the system of internal affairs agencies. In 1992, the Inquiry appeared as an independent unit in the system of the MOI of Russia.
Lieutenant Colonel of Police Alexander Valentinovich Karev, Senior Inquiry Officer of the Inquiry Department of the Main Directorate of the MOI of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, helped us sort out all nuances of the inquiry.
- Alexander Valentinovich, tell us, please, which crimes are investigated by inquiry officers?
- According to applicable law, inquiry officers investigate crimes under more than eighty articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. These are thefts of other people’s property, bodily injury, fraud, threat of murder, hooliganism and other crimes referred to the category of crimes of little and average gravity.
- Many people confuse inquiry officers with investigators and cannot figure out what is the difference between the two professions. Both of them seem to investigate criminal cases, establish and hold liable guilty persons, go to the scenes with investigation groups. Don’t they duplicate each other’s work?
- The professions of an investigator and an inquiry officer are similar only at first glance. There are a lot of differences. One of them is the gravity of the crimes investigated. If investigators deal with grave and especially grave crimes, inquiry officers deal with crimes of little and medium gravity. The time for the investigation of the case also differ. Inquiry officers must investigate a criminal case and refer it to court with the bill of indictment within a month. According to law, investigators have twice as much time to do this. In their difficult work inquiry officers have to communicate with rather specific people, going deeply into various possible and impossible everyday rows, drunken brawls, family conflicts. The success and quality of investigation of many crime cases depends on the knowledge of inquiry officers, their professionalism, the ability to competently and quickly take important decisions.
- Which components of crimes have been especially widespread lately?
- Over 80% of crimes referred to the competence of the inquiry are secret thefts of other people’s property or simply steals. Ten times more thefts are committed in the districts that are “rich” in large shopping centers. These are the theft of goods from stores, steal of purses and cell phone from careless customers, thefts from cars parked near shopping centers. Another curse is robberies committed without violence to the victim. Their number directly correlates with seasons. We also investigate crimes committed involving bodily injuries. In spring there is more work at the expense of identifying crimes associated with illegal production of animal resources. Of course, there are a lot of cases investigated on the facts of illegal possession and sale of narcotic substances.
- You had dedicated over 15 yeas to the service in the inquiry unit. Which criminal case under investigation was the most memorable for you?
- Every case is usually memorable by something special. Each of them involves people’s fates, people’s troubles. For instance, our operational-investigation group goes to investigate a case of family hooliganism. When we enter the flat, we see spills of blood everywhere: on the walls, ceiling, and furniture. Belongings and utensils are scattered in the kitchen and in the room; the crime instrument – a knife with brown spots on the blade - is on the table. A man is sitting on the sofa in the room; doctors, who have already arrived, provide first aid to him. We learn from the doctors that the victim has multiple cuts and wounds on the trunk and limbs. The guilty woman is the kitchen; all in tears, she goes out of her mount.  èòîãå ïëà÷åâíûé äëÿ íåå æå ðåçóëüòàò. A middle-aged woman, unable to bear any more regular rows and beatings from her husband-alcoholic, grabbed the knife and inflicted injuries to the tyrant, whereupon she called an ambulance to him and reported the incident to police. At the first glance, everything is clear from the legal point of view: there is a victim and the suspect, there is corpus delicti. But if we consider the other side of the situation, the side of the humanness, we will see that the despair made the woman grapple the knife. Having no opportunity to quit everything and leave, she had been enduring his abuse for a long time, until the emotions reached the critical point.
- So, which professional and personal features should an inquiry officer have in order to achieve positive results in his work?
- In this situation, as in many similar ones, an inquiry officer should use the most important quality of this profession: the humanness. The attention to details and carefulness in investigation by no means should exclude the impartiality and politeness. While examining the scene, during the interrogation, at face-to-face questioning we have to be psychologists in order to be able to make a person speak, really understand what has happened and find out the motive, which “impelled” to violate the law. Do not think that all this is done in order to refer the submit the case to the court as soon as possible. It is important for us to establish the truth of the case that, basing on the law, understand how significant the degree of culpability of the suspect is.
While investigating the criminal case in respect of the woman, who had inflicted bodily injury to her husband, I, as an inquiry officer and a man who does not accept violence, especially against the weaker sex, was in a difficult situation. I had to see the situation through the eyes of the woman as a victim. I had long conversations with the suspect, trying to understand her actual state at the moment of the crime. I spent a lot of time on preventive conversations with her husband, trying to explain him the negative reasons of family abuse. As a result, the man became ashamed of his unlawful behavior and confessed to me that he had wanted to stop drinking for a long time. He saw that his beloved (!) wife was suffering from hellbenders, but he was unable to control himself due to the lack of the willpower. I managed to persuade the man that his family relationships could be improved, and he addressed the medical center for help in the treatment of alcoholism.
When you take part in people’s destinies, you get interested in their further life. I was not indifferent to the destinies of these man and woman. Subsequently, during the court proceedings, the man-victim, who had given up drinking alcohol, publicly apologized to his wife and expressed the desire to achieve reconcilement with her. The court was on their side.
- Everything ended well in that case. Are all criminal cases investigated so happily, do all suspects become honest and obedient in front of the “the face of law”?
- Not all of them, of course. Some of them, trying to avoid punishment, “twist round” and tell lies during interrogations, despite the fact that the case contains incontestable evidences of their guilt. Some of them violate the chosen measure of restraint and start hiding from inquiry agencies. We do not conduct long conversations with such people: we find them and choose a stricter measure of restraint for them. In my opinion, only about 30% of citizens involved in the cases under investigation as suspects actually realize that they have committed a misconduct that goes beyond the applicable law.
- What is the most emotional day that you remember during your work in the inquiry service?
- As for emotions associated with the performance of service, there are a lot of such days in my practice. Together with my colleagues, I had several heart-pounding days in the summer 2010 in Vyksa of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, where I was heading during a week an inquiry group that helped the officers of the Investigation Committee record the consequences of forest fires. There, as never before, I faced people’s tragedy that had reached the climax. In burned villages, we provided assistance to local residents who lost their houses and the property acquired during the lifetime; we also saw ourselves the grief of people who lost their relatives as a result of natural disaster. I also saw many tragedies when I went to two business trips to the territory of the North Caucasian region.
As for positive emotions, I, as every officer of internal affairs agencies, felt unforgettably proud of myself when I was taken the oath, received my first service certificate, the first special title.
- Such difficult work probably takes a lot of personal time, doesn’t it? Do you have to stay at service after your working hours?
- An officer of internal affairs agencies does not have regular working hours. Every person who joins the ranks of police is aware of it.
- Alexander Valentinovich, how do your relatives perceive your workload?
- My wife, as a former inquiry officer who knows the specific features of this service, accepts by work with the understanding. I am grateful to her for this. I think that the understanding is one of the main principles of family well-being.
It is no secret that the vast majority of employees of the inquiry units are the representatives of the fair sex. Jus imagine how it is difficult for them to fulfill a large amount of work, pay attention to husbands and children and cope with domestic problems. It they feel the understanding and support of their families, they are able to cope with difficulties much quicker and easier.
The fact is that for many of us the work in the inquiry service has become not a source of profit but the life-work, which brings moral satisfaction from the triumph of good over evil, truth over falsehood. We are really happy when a well-deserved punishment “catches up” a guilty person, and victims thank for our work. Therefore, it is possible to sacrifice our personal time, weekends and holiday for the sake of the titanic labor on collection of evidence base and the responsibility for people’s destinies imposed on us.
- Do you have free time? If yes, how do you spend it?
- I fully dedicate my free time to my family, the upbringing of my four-year-old daughter. I also try to take care of my parents, who live in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, to help them with their household. At present, I am very fond of ship modeling. I have already read a heap of specialized books and started to assemble my first “trial” sample. Why ships? Maybe because I grew up on the shore of the Gorky Sea and love water space very much.
- What would you like to wish your colleagues on the “birthday” of inquiry units in the system of the MOI?
- I wholeheartedly wish all inquiry officers patience, optimism and success in their difficult service; I with them the ability to decently overcome life difficulties. I wish them understanding of their nearest and dearest, as well as great family happiness!
Natalya Evsina
Press Service of the Main Directorate of the MOI of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region
