According to sources in the Moscow GUVD, this is due to the large number of complaints from citizens about the actions of police officers who not only demand to see a passport but also illegally search passers-by, which often ultimately ends in extortion. It is clear that a law-abiding citizen detained for a document check would rather pay a police officer 50-100 rubles than spend three hours at the station and be late for work or an important meeting.
As told at the GUVD, the idea of streamlining the document check system arose long ago, but it has not yet received any approval at the legislative level. But, as police officers assure, it is only a matter of time - a number of regulatory documents will need to be revised, including amendments to the federal law "On the Militia".
The directorate believes that the currently established tradition of document checks, which can be carried out by any person in a police uniform, has outlived itself. Until 1999, document checks on the streets were carried out mainly by patrol and post service officers. However, the explosions of residential buildings in the southeast of Moscow led to total checks, raids and special operations conducted by Moscow police officers. Indeed, according to the law "On the Militia", any police officer, whether a traffic police inspector, a district officer or a serviceman of the internal troops, can ask citizens to present their passport. True, with the only condition - "if there are sufficient grounds to suspect them of committing a crime or administrative offense, and in the presence of sufficient data that they have with them weapons, ammunition, explosives, explosive devices, narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, to conduct, in accordance with the procedure established by federal law, a personal search of persons, search of their belongings, hand luggage and baggage, to confiscate the specified items, means and substances in the absence of data on the existence of legal grounds for their carrying and storage" (Article 11, part 2 of the Law of the Russian Federation "On the Militia").
Despite the fact that such checks sometimes bring success, in most cases the "suspects" turn out to be peaceful Muscovites.
The first to decide to eliminate police lawlessness was Sergei Stepashin, who was the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the late 1990s. In the spring of 1998, he prohibited traffic police officers from stopping cars for technical inspection outside traffic police posts, and also prohibited patrol and post service officers from performing traffic police functions, fining owners for dirty car license plates. However, that was all it came to. And already in February 2000, the Permanent Chamber for Human Rights of the Political Advisory Council under the Russian President published a report on mass violations by law enforcement officers who search Muscovites instead of simply looking at their passports. In addition, cases became known when special operations to detain criminals (for example, the "Interception" plan) became only a pretext for detaining peaceful citizens. And if police officers found any flaw in the presented documents, they forced the detainee to give a bribe.
Now the leadership of the Moscow GUVD wants to put the system in order. First, to stop the wave of citizens' appeals to government structures, the prosecutor's office, personally to the president and to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs with complaints about the actions of Moscow police officers. And secondly, to eliminate the practice of extortion, which leads to an increase in corruption in the ranks of the Moscow GUVD and spoils police statistics. Finally, as police believe, document checks should be handled by one service, so that all other police representatives work according to their profile and "do not shirk their official duties".
For now, documents are checked by servicemen of the internal troops, district police officers, employees of internal affairs departments, as well as extradepartmental security officers, traffic police inspectors and many others. Naturally, it is impossible to keep track of the actions of all GUVD police officers. Therefore, the directorate is now thinking about which service could be given the priority right to check documents. Most likely, it will be about patrol and post service officers (they are on duty on city streets for crime prevention and also participate in operations to search for criminals). But the police do not rule out that Vladimir Pronin may transfer some of these powers to the migration service, which controls the flow of non-resident citizens. And although it will be impossible to completely eradicate violations even in this case, the police leadership will at least be able to hold a specific chief accountable for abuses.