Kalmukhanbet Kassymov on local police service: akim will be fully responsible for prevention of offenses at the local level 

Minister of Internal Affairs Kalmukhanbet Kassymov told about the unification of police services and the role of akim in the local police service during a press conference at the press center of the Government. 
 

"Before proceeding to such changes, we have studied the experience of many countries. After all, the questions posed to the local police (note - prevention of violations, zero tolerance, public order), really have a local significance. I would like to raise the role of the local community and akims, so that they take more measures to prevent local crime and offenses. In order to raise the role of local akims, we created a local police service," Kassymov said. 

According to him, for two years of existence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs summed up the results and decided to combine the two services into one. 

"We noticed that there were two police services. The first is the Department of Internal Affairs and the second is the local police service, so once again having studied, they made a proposal to unite the two police services. The decree was signed by the President, and we renamed the Departments of the Interior into the Police Departments. For example, the Police Department of Astana or Almaty," he said. 

Thus, July 12, 2011, one of the laws aimed at improving the activities of the bodies was adopted. By law, the Departments of Internal Affairs have been transformed into Police Departments, and the Local Police Service has joined them as a structural unit, preserving the previous tasks and functions. To date, the akims have the right to appoint and dismiss the chiefs of the Police Departments (on the proposal of the Minister of Internal Affairs) and the authority to set before the police the tasks of ensuring law and order and preventing offenses, but without interfering in the police's operative-investigative and procedural activities.

Kassymov noted, the main innovation of this change is that the chief of the Police Department will now be responsible for everything. 

In addition, the head of the local police will appoint akim of the region or city. Thus, the akim will be responsible for the full prevention of offenses on the ground, except for questions of the operative and investigative service. 

"The thing is, we have wanted to do this for a long time, since there was a criminal investigation in the Department of Internal Affairs, emergency situations and everything else, and now there is no one except the police in the Police Department. There will be purely police services. Local police in full force will join this department," he added. 

It is also worth mentioning that in order to increase the accountability of the police to the local community, the legislative head of the Police Department was obliged to report at least once a year to the akim and the population. At the same time, at the level of the law quarterly conduct of reports by the district police inspectors to the population of the administrative section.