Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 18 December (BelTA) – The introduction of digital technologies in the work of the Investigative Committee is a pressing task, BelTA learned from Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Belarus Ivan Noskevich.

The official said: “We are developing an automated information system of our own. We are going to do it initially in-house. We are preparing the technical specifications on our own. We may submit them for expert evaluation to professionals after that.”

In his words, if things go well, the automated information system in Belarus’ Investigative Committee will be fully operational in roughly three years.

The Investigative Committee studies foreign experience of assimilating digital technologies, first of all, the automation of investigation processes. “We’ve studied how criminal cases are handled by digital technologies in Georgia. They deployed some components a long time ago. We’ve borrowed some practices. We are also interested in the Kazakh model. As far as Europe is concerned, Germany and particularly Estonia have advanced farthest in this regard. We are now looking for direct contacts in order to talk to colleagues from Estonia about their digital criminal case practices and practices used in day-to-day operation in order to introduce some of them in Belarus,” said Ivan Noskevich.

The official also talked about results of the agency’s international cooperation and the relevant prospects. In particular, in 2017 the Investigative Committee signed an agreement on cooperation with colleagues from Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Russia. Two joint sessions of the boards of the investigation committees of Armenia, Belarus, and Russia have been held already. The third session will take place in Belarus in 2018 following the rotation principle.

Apart from that, arrangements have been made on signing agreements, sharing the best practices, and arranging joint visits to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan next year. Arrangements on advancing cooperation with colleagues from other countries have been secured as well.

According to Ivan Noskevich, the committee’s workload dropped by roughly 7.5% in 2017. The official attributed the decline to the falling crime rate in Belarus. “This is why the optimization of the personnel structure was rather painless since we could promptly work with our personnel numbers,” noted the head of the agency.

The number of crimes like driving under the influence and drug-related crimes has dropped. “The most important managerial decisions, including at the level of the country’s leadership, have been made in these two areas in the last few years,” said Ivan Noskevich.