A new police law in Russia put on the Internet for public discussion includes restrictions on how much force law enforcers may use against individuals.
The website to publicly discuss the new law uses Russia's .ру domain for the Internet in Russianwhich contains only letters from the Russian alphabet. The bill was posted on законпроект2010.ру on Saturday.
One of the new restrictions is the use of nightsticks. According to the new law under discussion, police would no longer be allowed "to deliver blows with a truncheon to the head, neck, collarbone area, abdomen, or to the genitals." The new law would also restrict police from multiple blows to the same area of the body.
The use of physical force could also be restricted so that "a law enforcement agent would be obliged to warn an individual of physical force that he or she intends to use" against the alleged lawbreaker.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has also proposed changing the name of Russian law enforcers from the Russian "militsia" to the internationally accepted word "police".
Other reforms include involving "citizen police" when necessary to help out in detaining or arresting an alleged criminal. Ordinary citizens have not in the past been used in Russia for this; whereas in the United States citizen arrests are generally accepted. The change in Russian law would envisage that upon the request of a policeman, a regular citizen may be called on to assist in detaining a lawbreaker. RIA Novosti
