Time limits for considering a complaint to the police

Time limits for consideration of a criminal complaint by the police: what does the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation say?

The time frame for considering allegations of crimes is regulated quite strictly by the Criminal Procedure Code of Russia. All of them are spelled out in Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, which states that police officials (inquirer, investigator, etc.) are required to make a decision on a citizen’s application for a crime within a period not exceeding 3 days from the date of receipt of the application.

But in some cases, three days may not be enough to understand all the nuances of complex and confusing situations, you say. And you will be absolutely right.

That is why the law provides for the possibility of extending the period for consideration of a crime report to 10 and up to 30 days.

The period can be extended up to 10 days by the head of the investigative body or inquiry body (for example, the head of the district police department). The grounds for such an extension are not specified in the law and in practice can be anything (the need to obtain explanations from eyewitnesses, a request for documents, an additional inspection, etc.)
The inspection period can be extended up to 30 days either by the head of the investigative body (for example, the head of the investigation department of the internal affairs department) or by the prosecutor. The grounds for obtaining the right to consider a citizen’s application for a whole month are specified in Part 3 of Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. This is the need to conduct documentary checks, audits, forensic examinations, study documents, objects, corpses, as well as conduct operational search activities.

Request for documents (police): what acts is it regulated by?

You have received a request from the police for information, and for one reason or another you are not eager to comply with it, while at the same time fearing the consequences? Contact me for help, and I will offer you possible solutions to the problem.

First, let's look at the legal grounds for sending requests for documents (information) to units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

First of all, this is the Federal Law of 02/07/2011 N 3-FZ “On the Police”, according to clause 4 of part 1 of Art. 14 of which police officers have the right to request and receive, free of charge from citizens and organizations upon a reasoned request, information, certificates, documents (copies thereof), and other necessary information in connection with criminal cases under investigation and pending cases of administrative offenses, as well as in connection with verification of statements and reports of crimes, administrative offenses, and incidents registered in accordance with the procedure established by law, the resolution of which falls within the competence of the police, with the exception of cases where federal law establishes a special procedure for obtaining information.

Please note that police officers do not have the right to demand the provision of information and documents outside of the investigation or consideration of a specific criminal case, an administrative offense case or an operational (pre-investigation) investigation. Accordingly, the received request must indicate a number or other information that would allow the request to be identified as related to a specific criminal case, an administrative offense case or an operational investigation case (for example, the name of the accused, the person reporting the crime, etc.) Otherwise In this case, the police request for information (documents) may be considered illegal.

The literature often expresses the opinion that a request for documents must be not only legal, but also justified. That is, the request must indicate how the requested information is related to the specific case being processed by the police authority. Of course, it would not be bad to enshrine such a provision in law in order to protect the rights of citizens. However, today such a rule does not exist, and therefore the absence of justification in the request does not entail any legal consequences.

In addition to the Law “On the Police,” employees of various departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, when sending a request, often refer to Federal Law No. 144-FZ of August 12, 1995 “On Operational Investigative Activities.” Part 1 of Article 6, among other types of operational-search activities, calls for making inquiries. During this operational investigation, police officers can receive any information from citizens and organizations. If the received request contains a reference to this norm, then the request for information should be considered under the prism of this particular federal law.

When assessing the legality of providing documents in this case, one should first of all establish the existence of grounds for carrying out operational investigative measures specified in Art. 7 Federal Law “On operational investigative activities”, which include:

The presence of a criminal case.
Information about:
signs of an illegal act being prepared, committed or committed, as well as about the persons preparing, committing or having committed it, if there is not sufficient data to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case;
events or actions (inaction) that create a threat to the state, military, economic, information or environmental security of the Russian Federation;
persons hiding from the bodies of inquiry, investigation and court or evading criminal punishment;
missing persons and the discovery of unidentified corpses.

Instructions of the investigator, head of the investigative body, investigator, inquiry body or court ruling on criminal cases and materials of verification of reports of a crime in their proceedings.

Requests from other structures carrying out operational investigative activities on the grounds specified in this article.

Resolution on the application of security measures in relation to protected persons, carried out by authorized state bodies in the manner prescribed by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Requests from international law enforcement organizations and law enforcement agencies of foreign states in accordance with international treaties of the Russian Federation.

Maximum period for consideration of a citizen’s application

A citizen who has written a statement to the police is primarily interested in when to expect an answer?

The maximum possible period for consideration of an application for a crime is 30 days (Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

However, this does not mean that the internal affairs bodies will figure out the situation in a month and put an end to the case. Most often, the opposite happens - police officers, without having time to check all the circumstances of the application, issue an “interim” decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case, which can then be canceled by the prosecutor. For information on how to appeal an illegal decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case, read this article on our website: https://uslovka.ru/posts/kak-obzhalovat-postanovlenie-ob-otkaze-v-vozbuzhdenii-ugolovnogo-dela. html

Organization and procedure for the work of the local police commissioner with citizens' appeals

Written and oral appeals from citizens that do not contain information about incidents should be systematically analyzed and summarized in order to timely identify the causes of violations of the rights and legally protected interests of citizens, study public opinion, and improve the work of units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs system.

The activities of the local police commissioner in considering appeals from citizens, messages from government bodies, public associations and religious organizations on issues falling within his competence and not containing information about incidents can be represented as a sequence of the following actions:

1. Reception and registration of appeals in the journal for registering the reception of citizens by the local police commissioner or in the office of records management and regime of the internal affairs body.

2. Determination of facts and circumstances requiring verification and carrying out this verification.

3. Making a decision within the established time frame to refuse or satisfy the request, or to send an application according to the affiliation.

4. Quarterly analysis of incoming letters, applications, complaints and messages.

The local police commissioner must consider received letters and statements from citizens that do not contain elements of a crime within a period of no more than one month from the date of their receipt, and those that do not require additional study and verification - immediately, but no later than 15 days.

In cases where citizens’ applications contain information about crimes committed or being prepared, the consideration of this application is regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and the provisions of departmental regulatory legal acts.

The algorithm of actions of the local police commissioner is represented by a set of mandatory actions: acceptance of an application, message and other information about a crime, immediate notification of its receipt to the duty officer of the internal affairs agency and taking, within the limits of his powers, timely measures provided for by law.

Thus, the procedure for working with citizens’ appeals containing information about incidents includes three main elements, namely:

- reception,

- registration,

— resolution of incident reports.

Let's take a closer look at each of these elements.

1. Receiving incident reports, i.e. The local police commissioner carries out actions to receive a report of an incident, regardless of the place and time of the incident, as well as the completeness of the information contained therein and the form of presentation, around the clock in any internal affairs agency, including at the local police station.

It should be emphasized that the incident report, depending on the content and form of receipt (detection), is divided into:

– reporting a crime;

– statement of crime;

– surrender;

– a report on the discovery of a crime, drawn up by a person who received a message about a committed or impending crime, received from sources not listed above;

– messages and written statements about events that threaten personal or public safety, including accidents, traffic incidents, crashes, catastrophes, emergencies, riots, mass poisonings of people, natural disasters and other events that require verification for detection possible signs of a crime or administrative offense;

– other information about incidents.

The incident may be reported to the local police commissioner personally from the applicant, by hand, by mail, by telephone, telegraph, fax or other type of communication. Reports of incidents received by the records management and regime departments of the internal affairs bodies are registered according to the rules of records management and are recorded. At the same time, employees of the records management and security departments are prohibited from accepting and taking into account the report of the incident, which was delivered to the internal affairs body directly by the applicant.

Outside the internal affairs bodies, as well as in internal affairs bodies where there are no duty units, reports of incidents are required to be accepted by any police officers who act in accordance with the requirements established by the Federal Law “On Police” and other regulatory legal acts. In this case, the police officer records information about the applicant and the incident and transfers it to the duty station of the internal affairs body for immediate registration.

The protocol for accepting an oral statement about a crime, a written statement about a crime, a protocol for surrendering, a report from a police officer on the discovery of signs of a crime must be drawn up in accordance with the criminal procedure legislation of the Russian Federation.

An oral report made during an investigative action about a previously unregistered crime is entered into the protocol of the investigative action and at the same time formalized as a report from an employee of the internal affairs agency or a protocol on the acceptance of an oral statement about a crime in accordance with the criminal procedural legislation of the Russian Federation.

Anonymous statements received by mail, which contain signs of a committed or impending crime, with the exception of statements containing data on signs of a committed or impending terrorist act, without registration are transferred to the relevant units of the internal affairs body for possible use in the prescribed manner in operational investigative activities .

2. Registration of incident reports is the process of assigning a serial number to each received incident report and recording brief information about it in the accounting documentation. Registration of reports of incidents is carried out in the KUSP around the clock in the duty stations of the internal affairs bodies, regardless of the territory of operational service, as well as in the log of requests and reception of citizens by the local police commissioner.

The following are registered in KUSP:

– a written statement about the crime;

– protocol for accepting an oral statement about a crime;

– protocol of confession;

– statement about the unknown disappearance of a person;

– a report from an internal affairs officer on the detection of signs of a crime;

– order of the prosecutor to conduct an investigation into a report of a crime disseminated in the media;

– reporting and written statement about events that threaten personal or public safety, including accidents, traffic incidents, accidents, catastrophes, emergencies, riots, mass poisonings of people, natural disasters and other events that require verification for detection possible signs of a crime or administrative offense;

– other information about the incident.

When registering reports of incidents received by the duty department of the internal affairs bodies, a registration stamp must be affixed to documents registered in the KUSP. In the imprint of the stamp, the operational duty officer for the internal affairs department enters the registration number of the entry in the KUSP, the date of registration, the name of the internal affairs body, his initials and surname and certifies the specified information with his signature.

If a report of an incident was received by the internal affairs body through a personal appeal from the applicant, then simultaneously with the registration of the incident report in the KUSP in the duty station of the internal affairs bodies, the operational duty officer draws up a notification coupon and issues it to the applicant. The coupon consists of two parts: a coupon-stub and a coupon-notification. Both parts of the coupon have the same registration number. The applicant signs for receipt of the notification coupon on the coupon stub, and puts down the date and time of receipt of the notification coupon.

3. Resolution of incident reports means checking the facts set out in registered incident reports and making decisions within one’s competence in the manner established by legislation and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation.

The operational duty officer of the internal affairs body, after registering an incident report in the KUSP, takes response measures in the manner established by legislative and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation regulating the activities of internal affairs bodies. The head of the internal affairs body appoints an executor, who may be a local police commissioner, and exercises direct control over the timing and results of execution.

The local police commissioner, in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, when solving crimes in cases of which preliminary investigation is carried out in the form of an inquiry and referred by federal legislation to the competence of internal affairs bodies, has the right to resolve these messages within a period of no more than 30 days from the date of initiation of the criminal case.

An important component of the activities of the local police commissioner in considering citizens’ appeals is monitoring the status of this work. Measures to analyze and monitor the state of work with citizens’ appeals in a unit of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs system should be carried out as planned during their inspections, control checks and targeted visits.

Analysis of the results of organizing work with citizens' appeals is used when conducting inspections in units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, developing measures to improve law enforcement and strengthen the fight against crime, and improve the operational and official activities of internal affairs bodies. At the same time, the heads of departments for organizing the activities of precinct police officers of internal affairs bodies of districts, cities and other municipalities, internal affairs bodies in closed administrative-territorial entities, at particularly important and sensitive facilities:

– control and are responsible for the timely and high-quality consideration by local police officers of messages and statements of citizens, officials on the prevention and detection of crimes, crime prevention, and the protection of public order;

– carry out control and accounting of the official activities of local police commissioners in the implementation of all tasks and functions assigned to them, their compliance with the law when considering complaints and applications of citizens, conducting inquiries, carrying out operational investigative activities, and performing other duties assigned to them;

– develop and submit to the department management for approval work schedules for subordinates, their reception of citizens, speeches and reports to the population of administrative districts, organize and monitor their implementation.

Allowing reports of crimes and other information

Verification of reports of crimes and other information is carried out in accordance with the written instructions of the head of the internal affairs body or the person performing his duties, in the manner established by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

Based on the results of consideration of messages and other information, the inquiry officer or investigator of the internal affairs bodies makes one of the following decisions (Part 1 of Article 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure):

- to initiate a criminal case;

- refusal to initiate criminal proceedings;

- about transferring the message to the jurisdiction or to the court (in cases of private prosecution).

The applicant is informed about the decision made and his right to appeal the decision and the procedure for appealing in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (Part 2 of Article 145) is explained.

Terms of consideration

Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. “Procedure for considering reports of a crime”

In accordance with Part 1 , the inquiry officer, the inquiry body, the investigator and the prosecutor are obliged to accept, verify a message about any crime committed or being prepared and, within the competence established by the Code of Criminal Procedure, make a decision on it no later than 3 days from the date of receipt of the specified message.

Part 3. The prosecutor, head of the investigative department, head of the inquiry body has the right, at the request of the investigator or interrogating officer, respectively, provided for in part one of this article to 10 days

Part 5. A refusal to accept a report of a crime may be appealed to the prosecutor or to court in the manner established by Articles 124 and 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

3rd study question:

2. Determination of facts and circumstances requiring verification and carrying out this verification.

3. Making a decision within the established time frame to refuse or satisfy the request, or to send an application according to the affiliation.

4. Quarterly analysis of incoming letters, applications, complaints and messages.

Thus, the procedure for working with citizens’ appeals containing information about incidents includes three main elements, namely:

- reception,

- registration,

— resolution of incident reports.

Let's take a closer look at each of these elements.

It should be emphasized that the incident report, depending on the content and form of receipt (detection), is divided into:

– reporting a crime;

– statement of crime;

– surrender;

– a report on the discovery of a crime, drawn up by a person who received a message about a committed or impending crime, received from sources not listed above;

– other information about incidents.

The following are registered in KUSP:

– a written statement about the crime;

– protocol for accepting an oral statement about a crime;

– protocol of confession;

– statement about the unknown disappearance of a person;

– a report from an internal affairs officer on the detection of signs of a crime;

– order of the prosecutor to conduct an investigation into a report of a crime disseminated in the media;

– other information about the incident.

Allowing reports of crimes and other information

- to initiate a criminal case;

- refusal to initiate criminal proceedings;

- about transferring the message to the jurisdiction or to the court (in cases of private prosecution).

Terms of consideration

Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. “Procedure for considering reports of a crime”

3rd study question:

I wrote a statement to the police, but there was no answer - what should I do?

A citizen who has written a statement to the police is primarily interested in the question - what next?

In accordance with the law, after making a decision on the application, the police officer is obliged to notify its author in writing. But, unfortunately, sometimes it happens that the police do not respond to a complaint, and in this section we will tell you what should be done in such a case.

First of all, if possible, you should contact the police officer who is directly working with your application and inquire about its fate. If this does not help, then you have the right to file a complaint about ignoring the statement of crime to the following authorities:

Senior management of the Department of Internal Affairs. This can be either local authorities at the district level or at the regional (region, republic) level. The choice of the addressee is yours; however, the law does not prohibit sending complaints to several departments at once.
Prosecutor's office. This is where complaints against the actions of police officers are most often written, since this department, in accordance with the law, is the main supervisory authority in the field of criminal proceedings. The prosecutor has the right and authority to fully verify how and within how many days the police complaint was considered. If violations of the law are detected, the prosecutor's office is obliged to demand their immediate elimination. A complaint can be filed with the prosecutor's office at any level, but there is no point in sending it to the “very top”, because Almost all statements from there are “descended” back to the district level.

Do you have any questions or need qualified assistance in filing a complaint? Contact lawyers directly on the Uslovka.Ru website and they will definitely help you!