A Week of Visits to Police Departments in Ryazan: Initial Results

An action called "A Week of Visits to Police Departments" took place from 18 to 24 October simultaneously in 16 regions of Russia, including Ryazan region. The action is based on the idea that anyone who wishes can visit the nearest police department and observe its activities, assess the level of law enforcement services provided.
The Week of Visits to Police Departments is a unique event conducted in more than 20 countries under the auspices of the Global Alliance Altus and the INDEM Foundation, which is the representative of this international organisation in Russia. In Ryazan region, the action took place for the second time. The aim of the action is to assess the quality of police department work through the eyes of citizens, increase the level of accountability of police departments to the population, promote the ideas of international human rights standards, and also improve relations between citizens and police in general. The public organisation "Ryazan School of Human Rights" (INDEM's regional partner) organised the visits to police departments in Ryazan region.
During the action in Ryazan, small groups of citizens (four people each) visited 8 different district police departments in our region – 4 in Ryazan city (in the Railway, Moscow and October districts and the Main Police Department of Ryazan) and 4 in the districts of the region (Zakharov, Mikhailov, Putyatino and Shatsk districts). These were students, members of the public, and simply citizens who had learned about "A Week of Visits to the Police" from the mass media and the Internet and expressed a desire to become visitors. Among the visitors were journalists. And a group of schoolchildren also visited the October district police department.
A visitor had to observe the work of the police department, assess it from the perspective of an ordinary person who came to the department either as a victim, as a witness, or as a detainee. Most visitors were interested in the department's orientation towards providing assistance to citizens, the conditions for receiving victims, the conditions for conducting preliminary investigations, the detention of suspects, the material and technical conditions of work for department staff, and also the department's accountability to society. Based on the results of their visits, visitors filled in special questionnaires (identical for all countries participating in the international action).
The final results of the action in Russia will be summed up only in November. After processing the results of the study, the best police department across Russia will be identified, and, of course, the department that scored the highest points in the region. The police department that wins across Russia is put forward for an international award, and the regional leader will receive a special Russian Altus diploma.
The impressions visitors had from the visits this year were quite varied. The new city police department impressed them – it was new, large, bright, clean, comfortable, equipped with the latest technology, with a large hall for meetings and conferences, a sports hall, a room for psychological assistance, convenient offices for staff to work in, and excellent information displays on the walls. According to the visitors, all police departments in Ryazan region should be like this one. True, the location is inconvenient – Bazhenov Street, a new residential district (and just one bus that runs at hour-long intervals), so, probably, there are few visitors. And even here, in a building constructed using modern standards, there are no ramps for people with disabilities (but, as the visitors noted, this is a common problem in our region – people in wheelchairs do not have proper independent access to police departments anywhere). Nevertheless, the overall impression of the Main Police Department was very good.
Good impressions were made by the departments of the Railway, Zakharov and Putyatino districts. One can see the care that the heads of these departments show both for citizens and their own staff. These departments looked respectable according to the criteria of orientation towards providing assistance to citizens, material and technical conditions, observance of the principle of equality before the law when working with citizens (people with disabilities, the wounded, elderly citizens, people of different nationalities), orientation towards respecting confidentiality when interviewing victims and witnesses of crimes, interviewing female victims.
In the Putyatino police station, flowers even stand in the duty room (a small detail, but an indicator of care for the workplace); there are special rest rooms for staff. In the Railway district police department, the duty room, corridor where cells for detainees are located, and other corridors have been equipped with CCTV cameras. In the Zakharov police department, almost all offices are equipped with CCTV cameras, the information from which is transmitted to a central control panel, is recorded (and cannot be erased). According to police department staff, all Ryazan police departments will gradually be equipped with such direct CCTV cameras.
This is very important from the perspective of ensuring the safety of detainees – under surveillance cameras, the probability of using improper methods to extract confessions from suspects is reduced, including the use of torture. However, in district police departments, especially in districts with populations of 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, police work is already transparent – people know the faces and names of both senior officers and their local police officers.
But the strongest impression on visitors was made by the Shatsk district police department. Despite the fact that it is located in a nineteenth-century building with narrow corridors and old ceilings, visitors felt comfortable and calm there: the walls of the duty room contain all the necessary information to navigate and write the necessary paper (a complaint, a statement), it is clear whom to approach and what time one can do so; the department is clean and orderly, there are enough chairs for those waiting their turn in the corridors, offices are adapted for receiving citizens, conversations, inspections; there are good conditions for the detention of arrested persons – from the perspective of their safety and observance of sanitary standards. For detainees, there is all the information on where they can appeal in case of dissatisfaction with ill-treatment (but neither the staff nor the arrested persons in one of the cells could recall any cases of dissatisfaction). The building has had its heating, sewage and ventilation systems repaired. Each member of staff whom visitors approached with questions answered them fully, clearly and precisely.
The overall impression from all the visits compared with last year can be characterised as positive. Changes for the better are visible in all departments, even in those which visitors did not rate highly. Officers in the duty rooms have name badges with their name and rank; the duty rooms have been set up with conditions for writing statements, there are all necessary samples, forms, pens, tables and chairs; the notice boards contain sufficient information about where and whom to contact on various matters; there are even displays about human rights. But the working conditions of the departments of Mikhailov, Moscow and October districts are very difficult. The buildings are old, cramped and not adapted for police departments. Repairs have not been done for decades. There is no basic lighting and proper ventilation in the cells. In small offices, 3 to 5 staff members work simultaneously (it is difficult to speak of confidentiality during interviews with victims and witnesses); there is a shortage of chairs, pieces of old wallpaper hang from the walls, linoleum in offices and corridors is worn down to the concrete, in some offices, dim light bulbs have no shades (without them, perhaps, they are brighter). At the same time, it is in these departments that visitors observed the largest number of visitors in the duty rooms (in the October district police department – literally a stream). In the opinion of visitors, the authorities should take all necessary measures to change the situation: one cannot speak of quality work with citizens if the staff themselves do not have normal working conditions.
It should be noted that during the action, visitors were received very cordially in all departments and were given the opportunity to see what interested them (with the exception of the Mikhailov district police department – there were inadequate arrested persons in the detention cells). The Main Police Department of Ryazan region demonstrated its readiness for openness and interest in expanding contacts with the public.
The final results of the Week of Visits to Police Departments will be presented at a round table discussion "Ryazan Police: Time for Change" in November–December 2010.
Coordinator of the Action "A Week of Visits to Police Departments" in Ryazan – Sofia Yuryevna Ivanova

Reference Note:
The Week of Visits to Police Departments (hereinafter "Visits to the Police") is a unique event organised by Altus. Visitors to police departments use a universal questionnaire developed by Altus, which is designed to draw visitors' attention to the most significant conditions for police department activities from the perspective of international standards. Immediately after the visit, visitors answer 20 questionnaire questions, collected in 5 sections, assessing the police department according to key functions. The assessment of a police department is based on the individual impressions of citizens from their visit to the police, local citizens' personal perceptions of the police and how well these perceptions were met. Although citizens' perceptions of the quality of police work may vary depending on the region, the aim of the project is to determine how citizens themselves assess local police departments and how well, in their view, they meet international standards. As a result, Altus collects, processes and compares the data obtained from visits using special software via the Internet.
Reference Note:
Altus is a global alliance operating throughout the world. Altus's work is aimed at raising the level of public safety and improving the quality of justice, taking into account the cultural characteristics of different countries.
Reference Note:
INDEM stands for "Informatics for Democracy". The INDEM Foundation was founded in 1990. INDEM is one of the first non-governmental organisations to emerge in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The foundation is headed by its founder and director Georgy Satarov, formerly an adviser to President B. Yeltsin and General Director of the Russian Public Political Centre. INDEM Foundation's activities cover a wide range of issues, from election monitoring to pre-trial detention. INDEM develops a unique method of obtaining quantitative indicators of justice through conducting sociological surveys of experts. Since 2000, the Centre for Justice Assistance has operated at INDEM. Among the most well-known projects of the Centre can be named the "First Contact" project, aimed at improving relations between police and residents of Nizhny Novgorod by simplifying the procedure for filing statements to the police. As well as the InformSuccess project – for preparing juvenile offenders for release by providing information to released teenagers about the most important social support services located in their area of residence and to which they can appeal after release.
Reference Note:
The Ryazan School of Human Rights is a public organisation engaged in raising the level of legal awareness of citizens through educational programmes, monitoring compliance with human rights in Ryazan and organising public actions in defence of public interests. Founded in 1997.