It was reported at the region’s public prosecution authorities’ meeting that over 15,500 reports on missing persons were made to the region’s militia in January-September 2007. The location of nearly 5,300 people is still unknown, and some serious problems with the organization of the search as well as grave violations of legitimacy are believed to be the reason for this. Prosecutors disclosed numerous instances of unnecessary bureaucracy, negligence, and beadledom among the militiamen and lack of proper control from their supervisors.

Very often, officers would refuse to file a criminal suit even when the circumstances of a case were clearly crime-related. Prosecutors have had to cancel 1,224 such rejections since the beginning of the year, 330 of which took place in Sverdlovsk Region.

What is more, some dishonest officers would start a criminal case and dismiss it on the same day; these cases usually involved ‘missing’ persons whose whereabouts the officers knew very well. This was done in order to improve their performance statistics, and the management simply turned a blind eye to these actions.

As a result, 139 militiamen (including 19 heads of district divisions and their deputies) and 9 municipal prosecutors and their deputies were faced with disciplinary liability.