As Russian market economy is rapidly developing, Russia has advanced enormously to become a modern, civilized state. At the present time, given the rapidity of events and procedures in all spheres of life, crime prevention, detection and investigation is of special importance now.
Given the present-day situation, one of the crucial matters of the state law enforcement activity is revealing and investigation of corruption and violent crimes. As economic relations within small and middle-sized business keep developing, the turnover of commodities between proprietors grows. The volume of freight conveyance within the territory of Russia and abroad has considerably increased, with a large part of transportation performed by motor vehicles.
Analyzing the nature of armed assaults which occurred over the last few years, it is obvious that their percentage in the range of crimes committed against the property of physical bodies and legal entities during their conveyance is relatively stable. Misappropriated are both monetary funds and the conveyed commodities (basically, cigarettes, foodstuffs (including alcohol products) and electronics).
As a rule, such crimes are committed at night and early in the morning. The motor vehicles are attacked both in settlements and in close vicinity, as well as during the drivers' repose at unguarded parking areas and during involuntary stops. Especially disturbing is that such armed assaults are committed by armed groups, sometimes with participation of those disguising themselves as employees of law enforcement bodies.
Due to the big stretch of motor roads to Russia and the rapidity of the motor transportation services market's development, geographically the scope of offences comprises all federal districts and constituents of the Russian Federation.
Besides, one of the key factors directly related to the crime situation in country motor roads is considerable distance between their most dangerous sections and inhabited settlements which affects and restricts the operational coverage and supervision of law enforcement bodies.
Therefore, given the rapid increase of the inter city motor freight transportation activity performed for state and commercial purposes, the above-stated makes the issue under consideration extremely pressing. Therefore, working out a strategy of struggle against such offences and its implementation are priority issues to consider and priority measures providing integrity of property which are to be taken to ensure normal activity of the transport system.
As of today, 164 specialized groups within non-departmental security units at internal affairs departments in the constituents of the Russian Federation bear responsibility for protection of the property of physical bodies and legal entities during conveyance. The enlisted personnel capacity is 3330 militia employees. To perform the obligations under property protection during conveyance contracts, 735 service vehicles are used.
In the branches of the federal state unitary enterprise "Okhrana" ("Protection") of the MOI of Russia there are 466 valid contracts providing for property protection during conveyance, the net increase as of the beginning of the year made 212 contracts. The specialized groups engaged in protection of the conveyed property have 46 motor vehicles (38 cars and 8 trucks) at their disposal. The authorized staff size is 415 employees.
The supplies of the non-departmental security groups and employees of the FSUE "Okhrana" of the MOI of Russia can help solve the issue of ensuring reliable protection of commodities conveyed by own or the customer's motor vehicle in various variants.
An important step forward in providing safety of commodities conveyance was the decision of the Russia MOI's board as of November 30, 2005 "About measures taken by law enforcement bodies and internal troops aimed at provision of safety of primary importance objects, highly dangerous objects and life-supporting objects" approved by the order of the MOI of Russia relating to the establishment of a specialized Center of coordination and protection of commodities during conveyance, with regard to the development of the federal monitoring system of motor vehicles protection, including the conveyance of extremely dangerous cargoes to other regions.
As of today, there are four types of systems of moving objects monitoring provided to non-departmental security groups and utilized in 53 regions of the Russian Federation. Their usage ensures operational guidance of militia squads along patrol routes which considerably speeds up reaction to alarms and allows to protect motor vehicles of physical bodies and legal entities.
In total, 329 control centers are established, over 7 thousand official motor vehicles and cars belonging to physical bodies and legal entities are equipped by navigational facilities.
Considering that different systems have different methods of vehicles locations identification in terms of satellite signals and theta-theta radio goniometry, integration and standardization of equipment of the utilized systems is under way, which will be followed by the integration of local regional segments into a uniform federal system of monitoring, offering a possibility of a sun early transition to a domestic positioning system GLONASS supported by President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin.
Since 2007, GLONASS/GRS receivers are installed in terminal stations of the moving objects monitoring units "Almaz" ("Diamond"). All terminal stations for the moving objects monitoring units intended for non-departmental units will be equipped with integrated GLONASS/OR8 receivers in 2008, and later, with domestically manufactured GLONASS receivers.
In the context of the MOI's participation in developing the Concept of a federal system of monitoring primary importance objects and/or highly dangerous objects of the infrastructure of the Russian Federation as well as dangerous cargoes, there was an objective of establishing a "pilot" safety motorway "Moscow-Voronezh".
Now the "pilot" safety motorway is in operation. It is here that various technical and organizational solutions are checked and improved which will allow to further extend the accumulated experience to other important highways, thus establishing a unified system of monitoring dangerous and especially valuable cargoes in terms of the whole country.
REFERENCE: Taking into account the work experience in protecting the physical bodies' and legal entities' property during conveyance , the professional training of employees, the weapons capacities and communication facilities - the enhancement and extension of cooperation with the non-departmental security service and the Enterprise will enable:
1. To improve the efficiency of planning and managing the protection of cargoes and eventually, to increase the volume of conveyance and services.
2. To improve the quality of supervision over the protection of conveyances.
3. To enhance safety of cargo transportation, to reduce the rate of accidents and the losses due to the plundering of the motor vehicles and the freight.
4. To reduce the terms of the cargoes delivery to the end consumer; to cut back vacant running; to prevent any misuse of transport vehicles.
5. To reduce freight conveyance costs by means of optimizing fuels and lubricants costs and reducing inefficient movement.
6. To provide exchange of information about transport vehicles and freight during transportation with motor transport enterprises, with adjacent railways, shipping companies, forwarding agents, insurance companies, consignors, consignees etc.
7. To exclude freight losses on the way from the border to the customs terminal.
In future, when making certain organization-specific arrangements it may be possible to provide economic entities with integrated services: cargo insurance and escort by militia.
This militia escort performed by official motor vehicles or by the customer's vehicle, ensures cargo protection against armed assaults, thefts and other illegal offences, provides communication with the transport vehicle along the whole route of the cargo and provides the customer with information, while an insurance company would insure cargo against other emergencies on its way such as: acts of nature, traffic accidents etc.
The implementation of these projects in practice, provided that the respective legal acts regulating the cooperation of all forces and capacities of law enforcement bodies are modified and amended, will yield a considerable decrease in the crime rate on Russian motorways and ensure integrity of conveyed goods and personal safety of citizens.
It's worth adding that in 2007, the Ministries of Interior of Russia and Kazakhstan were shown a sample safety motorway "Novosibirsk - Omsk - Tyumen" equipped by the monitoring system "Argo - Strazh". Under the aegis of the FSUE "Okhrana" of the MOI of Russia integration and standardization of equipment of the utilized systems is under way, which will be followed by the integration of local regional segments into a uniform federal system of monitoring, offering a possibility of a subsequent integration of local regional fragments into a uniform monitoring system.
In pursuance of the decision made at the session of the Joint board of the union state's Ministries of Interior which was held in Bryansk in June 2007, the deputy ministers approved a Plan of cooperative actions aimed at establishing a safety motorway "Moscow-Brest" using the technical capacities of the Global Orbiting Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) for provision of safety of transport vehicles and the conveyed cargoes was approved for 2008.
The issue will presumably be solved before the end of the current year.
In conclusion it shall be observed that this work offers a prospect of building up a unified motor vehicles monitoring system operating within the territory of the Russian Federation and contributes to an improvement in freight protection during conveyance and enhancement of services in the sphere of ensuring integrity of property and personal safety of citizens.
Also, it is planned to continue expansion of these safety motorway areas. The long-term intention is to extend the coverage to the south of Russia establishing safety motorways to Stavropol area, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don.
Ministry of Interior of Russia