Biaroza: picket organizers believe police overprice their services for securing public order

Organizers of the picket on July 27 in Biaroza appealed to the leadership of Biaroza District Police Department with a statement, claiming that the contract for services for the protection of public order at the mass event had been performed improperly.

Only 6 instead of 10 policemen (provided by the service agreement) came to the entrance of the stadium in the suburb of Paŭnočny Haradok, and not at 4 p.m., but at 5.05 p.m. At 5.35 p.m. there came the seventh policeman, lieutenant-colonel Vadzim Pastayalka. After the picketers had dispersed, two more people in civil clothes came to the action site, and one policeman in the uniform was noticed at the distance of 500 meters, after a telephone call from the lieutenant-colonel, who had already left the stadium and got into his car.

Biaroza police disagreed with the pretensions of the picketers and stated that the protection of the public order had been carried out properly. The policemen explained their being late by a briefing in the hall of the police station, after which all of them had started patrolling their routes. However, the “place of rendering services” is precisely indicated in the service contract – at the entrance to the stadium.

“What patrolling could they perform in the space of several meters where the picketers were standing?” argue the organizers of the event. “The service contract says nothing about any instruction briefings in the hall of the police department. We also had no opportunity to detect the ranks of the policemen, as only three of those who arrived at 5.05 p.m. wore the uniform, and the remaining three were in civilian clothes. We asked major Prokurat what they were, as they didn't stop and immediately proceeded to the stadium. Prakurat answered that they were sportsmen. However, the service contract doesn't stipulate that the customer must pay the athletes who come in the same car with the police.”

Let us remind that the police priced their services on securing of the public order during the picket as high as 4,061,900 rubles (about $260).