The police are inactive! Where to complain? Step-by-step instruction.

What should citizens do if the police do not respond to a call?

Many people complain that they call the police because, for example, the neighbors are making noise and arguing, or they saw a fight under the windows, or for any other reason, but the police do not arrive. And this happens over and over again. What to do in this situation? Well, first of all, keep calling: patience and work will wear out everything. In addition, you should know: if you dial 102, your call will be recorded. A card must be created for each request, and you cannot simply “forget” it. However, as practice shows, there can be a lot of such cards in the police department. And it is likely that the police will come to you much later. Or he won’t arrive at all, and the card will somehow be archived. Or they will simply tell you that there was not enough staff, and therefore they responded to your call on a residual basis - at 8 o’clock in the morning, although you called at 12 at night.

Therefore, you should not particularly hope that the official registration of your application will change anything significantly. However, we are starting to fight for our rights. For the police to still fulfill their immediate duties - to stop a crime or, for example, an administrative offense in the form of noise under the windows. To ensure that no one makes noise near your house (again, this applies specifically at night), you must contact the police by calling 102 and say that something illegal is happening. After this, the police must leave. If she doesn’t leave, there must be certain consequences.

If you dialed 102, wait, the police must somehow respond to your call. If 10, 15 minutes have passed - in general, a sufficient amount of time - call again, ask the question again. If the police have left, wait until the squad arrives. But if they are lying to you, and the police did not actually go anywhere (and this often happens), then you can call a higher authority. This is where the fun begins.

Main reasons for filing a complaint

Citizens can complain about the actions of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in the following cases:

police actions violate the law;
police officers do not fulfill their duties provided for by current legislation.

Complaint about inaction of police officers

The inaction of the police may become a reason for a complaint in the following cases:

police officers refused to accept a statement about a crime or other illegal acts;
there was no response to the appeal and no verification is being carried out;
no criminal case was initiated , and the inspection was carried out negligently;
the act is incorrectly classified;
investigative actions necessary to resolve the issue are not carried out;
Ignoring by the district police officers and citizens' complaints.

The complaint must be submitted within the time limits established by law, otherwise it will not be considered.

Complaint about unlawful actions of police officers

In addition to inaction, police officers may also commit illegal actions. The most common violations that occur are:

exceeding the time limit for detention;
unlawful use of physical force or special means;
interviewing a minor without a teacher or legal representative, etc.

Where can I complain about the inaction of the police?

Let's say the police didn't respond to your call in any way, but ordinary police officers have already learned to recognize your voice, and now they tell you that the squad is on its way (or answer any other nonsense over the phone). In this case, you can dial the phone number of a higher organization. The police department will most likely be commanded by the district department of internal affairs. Previously, of course, it was simpler: each department was called a “department.” And now it can be both a department and smaller police units that are subordinate to the department. But in order not to confuse you, let’s simplify the diagram: let’s say there is a local branch “on the ground”, there is a branch in the district and there is one in the region. These are the units you need to call. Start with phone 102. You will be taken to the general control panel 102 in Moscow, or to a small regional police station in a rural area. In any case, telephone 102 takes you where you need to go: to the police station to which the desired station is attached.

If nothing happens after this, your task is to find out the phone number of the next higher police department. Where can I find it out? This can usually be done by calling the same place you called first. Dial the same phone number and ask how to contact the chiefs of these same police officers who have been coming to you for the second hour. Most likely, they will tell you the phone number of the police department, or the police department - it doesn’t matter what it’s called. Try to call the duty station of this same police department, which is superior to your “lower” police unit.

If you get through by phone, tell us about your problem. If you didn’t get through by phone, or your complaint did not lead to anything, or the answer you were given does not suit you, then you need to call the Main Department of Internal Affairs for the region (or the Department of Internal Affairs for the subject of the Federation in which you are located ). They can, again, be called differently. For example, in Tatarstan this will be the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan; in some small region it may be the Department of Internal Affairs for the region. In Moscow, this will be the Main Department of Internal Affairs for the city of Moscow, and in the Moscow region, accordingly, the Main Department of Internal Affairs for the Moscow Region. There is also a duty officer there. You can call him, and a living human voice will tell you why the policeman is not coming to you.

It is very important to always ask who is talking to you. Even if the duty officer said his last name indistinctly, no one is stopping you from asking him to repeat it and write it down. This will be useful to you later, when you call the names of police officers to their superiors and figure out why they did not respond to your appeal. But, as practice shows, already at the level of the Internal Affairs Directorate, that is, middle management, your call usually attracts attention, and the police begin to move much faster than before.

Alas, the system is such that almost everything in our country works exclusively with a kick. Except that insects and birds fly on their own. Sometimes trains move on their own - especially if there are no brakes and the track is directed downwards... But hedgehogs in our country don’t fly without a kick. And the police themselves do not work quickly, not to mention the bailiffs.

We have already complained everywhere, but we still receive standard replies!

You need to understand that the police have not only those functions that are performed right now, in a “fire” order (for example, a conversation with a neighbor who has become noisy in the middle of the night). There are also functions that can be performed later - tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. For example, a criminal investigation. Well, no one does it in one day. This is weeks, maybe even months. And here the police also show “miracles” of speed, believe me. But you can also complain about this without haste: to the prosecutor’s office, in writing. Or to the higher management of employees - also in writing. But most often you still need to contact the prosecutor’s office, because it is she who controls the activities of our valiant police.

The prosecutor's office may have two responses to such requests. In the first case, they will write to you something like “Yes, dear citizen, you are absolutely right! We have already flogged all the culprits, deprived them of the bonus, and now we offer you our deepest apologies.” But I remember very few such answers in my life - the fingers of one hand are enough to count them. Most often, the answer from the prosecutor's office comes something like this: we looked at everything here carefully, we gave instructions, but in general, the standards for arriving at your call were observed.

A very important question arises here: what are we fighting for? If we are fighting to speed up the investigation into your case, I understand why additional complaints need to be filed. But why write complaints about the fact that the task force did not come to your call two weeks ago, I honestly don’t really understand. You won't change the situation in any way. Unless the next group will know that you are a strange “client” and are writing complaints to the prosecutor’s office. And therefore, it is better to come to you as quickly as possible than to provoke your anger, which will then be multiplied by five or even ten times in the prosecutor’s office.

Can they refuse admission?

In most cases, the leadership of law enforcement agencies, like the prosecutor's office or the court, cannot refuse a citizen to accept his complaint. They are required to process the paper and begin checking. However, the legislation defines a number of cases when refusal will be lawful. This is possible in the following cases:

Submission of an anonymous document. As mentioned above, government agencies, like the investigative committee, do not work with anonymous complaints. Therefore, a citizen must provide his details before submitting the paper.
The application against the police officer has been filed again. If a complaint is being or has already been checked, employees have the right to refuse to accept another similar complaint. However, if new facts and evidence are discovered, the refusal will be unlawful.
A complaint against a police officer does not carry any semantic meaning , that is, it is meaningless.
The statement to the prosecutor's office against the police was drawn up illiterately , from its composition it is impossible to understand the essence of the complaint, it contains abuse or threats.

If any of the above occurs, the refusal will be legal and not subject to appeal, even if there is police lawlessness. Calling and complaining in this case is useless. The sample complaint against a police officer presented above will help you avoid such situations and fight for your rights.

What if the police arrive but it's too late?

Dear citizens, let us agree on this: if a crime or offense occurs before your eyes, please dial 102 at least once. Inform the police about this, they will respond to the situation. Or they won't react. If what happened continues to worry you, call your higher authorities, the regional police department, somewhere else - ultimately, the person on duty at the regional prosecutor's office. Call and demand that a police officer come and stop this very crime.

If it stopped by itself, of course, each of us must decide for ourselves whether it is worth doing something else, or whether it is better to leave everything as it is. I am a caring person, I usually don’t leave anything to chance. I will definitely continue to call, write letters, statements, comments, suggestions and other requests. But you can leave everything as it is - if, of course, you are satisfied with what is happening in your city, entrance or on the playground where your child is relaxing. If you are happy with everything, leave it as is. If you are not satisfied, write your complaints in writing.

Yes, unfortunately, the only reaction to your verbal calls can be this, immediate – the arrival of a task force. And all your further calls are, as a rule, useless. Therefore, the next thing to do is to send a complaint in writing. Not in electronic form, I do not recommend you do this, but in writing, with your signature. And transfer this complaint where it should be, namely to the duty department of the internal affairs agency. Next, you will receive a coupon with a number, which you will then call all the time. You must respond within 30 days. As a rule, they answer on the 29th. So get ready: fighting a system that doesn’t want to work on its own is, of course, exciting. But, unfortunately, this is an extremely long process.

Distinctive features of a complaint against police officers

A complaint against police officers has the following characteristic features:

It can be written by any person who believes that police officers have violated his rights and legitimate interests.
An application or appeal to the court can be written handwritten or typewritten. To go to court, you must comply with the procedural order. You can't do without lawyers and attorneys.
The application must necessarily indicate the passport details of the applicant, as well as the details of the authority where it is being submitted.
The appeal shall indicate all relevant facts. They must be stated clearly and concisely.

In general, the law does not define a clear form for writing a complaint against police officers, so it is drawn up in free form, but with mandatory compliance with the above rules. Let me remind you that when going to court, you must follow the procedural order.

What to do if all possible authorities have already been passed?

I wish this system would work itself, but it works pretty poorly on its own. And the purpose of lawyers is precisely to, with the help of the mentioned kick, somehow direct this system onto the right path and force it to do what is already part of its tasks.

If you still have questions, or you are faced with police inaction and need legal assistance, sign up for a consultation! Lawyer Zharov’s team, among other things, resolves various issues related to law enforcement agencies. In particular, we force them to work according to the law.

Your lawyer Anton Zharov