Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev spoke at the Federation Council before the re-approval of his candidacy for the position and again spoke about the shortage of employees. The speech was broadcast on Rutube.
So, if at the end of 2022 he spoke about the outflow of employees and a shortage of 90 thousand people, then at the end of 2023 the figure, in his words, reached 100 thousand people. Today Kolokoltsev spoke about “a personnel shortage of 152 thousand people.”
The number of employees of the internal affairs bodies is now 780 thousand people. Kolokoltsev also spoke about the need to find about 52 thousand employees for the occupied territories.
“We cannot print money and increase wages as the main motive for recruiting to serve in the internal affairs bodies. And the situation — it has not just changed, it has worsened,” the minister began.
“If you look at the services, for example, the patrol guards are understaffed by 26%, investigators – 21%. This is the fate of a person, if there are not enough investigators, who will investigate criminal cases? Criminal investigation — [missing] 20%,” he cited the figures. — If we take it by region, then, for example, in the Kostroma region, not far from the capital region, the patrol service in a number of areas is 90% short-staffed — this means that they are not there at all. Criminal investigation — 53%. The Sverdlovsk region, a powerful region, industrially developed — in the patrol service there is a shortage of 88%, in the criminal investigation department — 62%.»
» This is the average for all regions. And if you take regions such as Primorye, for example, there is a shortage of 25% of personnel, Magadan — 24%, Tula — literally a neighboring region to the capital — 23%. What do these numbers say? These figures indicate that one internal affairs officer works for four,” Kolokoltsev complained.
According to him, police departments in Moscow are also facing shortages. “Even if we take the patrol service in Moscow, for example, in the Krasnoselskoye district, there is a 78% shortage. Well, since we touched on the capital region, <…> for district police officers in such districts of Moscow as Western Degunino, Severny Settlement, Troparevo, Nikulino, Brateevo, Teply Stan — there is a shortage of district police officers of 75%.»
Against the background of a shortage of police officers, in 2023 a law was passed easing the requirements for entry into service in the internal affairs bodies, including age groups.
Several current and former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told the BBC Russian service last year that they attribute mass layoffs to paperwork, overtime and low salaries. “Now citizens like to report on all sorts of things in connection with the SVO, so more materials have appeared in the work. And this is again instead of investigating real cases. And so there aren’t enough people, and you send them out to fill these requests when some old lady saw a yellow and blue curtain,” one of the former policemen from Tyumen told reporters.