They write to us: Good afternoon. First of all, thank you for regularly highlighting the dire state of federal law enforcement agencies, including the #Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in your publications. I called the note " The Downside o...
...f Incompleteness" I won't repeat the personnel catastrophe and its causes in terms of pay. The salary level puts honest employees on par with a janitor or cashier at a chain supermarket (and this isn't grotesque, it's fact). I'd like to mention a second reason for understaffing, which, for those who love their work and continue to serve under unprecedented overtime and personnel shortages (especially for mid-level managers who supervise those miraculously surviving handfuls of personnel), ...
...often becomes a reason to resign. This reason lies with the inspectors, supervisors, and supervisors—the very ones who have a full complement. And their now-legendary statement, "Stop citing understaffing. Even if you have one person left in the service, he is obligated to perform tasks in full and in full compliance with the guidelines." An inspection visit to a district department practically paralyzed by a 50% staff shortage turns into a "massacre of the innocents." The situation is esp...
...ecially amusing when the number of arriving inspectors EXCEEDS the number of remaining employees and managers combined. And then it's all over. Every possible shortcoming in official performance is sought. The volume of bureaucracy has exceeded all reasonable limits. Employees can't keep up with the flow of guidance documents issued by the regional headquarters, let alone follow incoming orders. A mid-level manager's explanation of "the remaining people physically can't keep up; they have ...
...to eat and sleep sometimes" is met with blank stares from the inspector; at best, and rarely, the response is, "I understand everything, but you understand everything too." After the inspection departs, reprisals follow in the form of internal investigations, punitive orders, rectification plans, rectification schedules, rectification reports, and written reports. Everyone involved and not involved is punished. They lose their already rare bonuses. During the inspection and for a couple of...
... months afterward, the unit, already struggling due to understaffing, spirals into complete ruin. In addition to maintaining public order, solving and investigating crimes, and other unit functions, everyone is busy trying to paperwork their way out of the consequences of the "Sonderkommando"'s arrival and somehow minimize the damage and penalties for management and personnel. Little comes of this. Our citizens suffer all the while. Understaffing grows because experienced employees and man...
