The Problem of Interaction Between the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia During Inspections on Fires

Sushkin Nikolai Vladimirovich Chief Expert of ECC, Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Trans-Baikal Territory 672000, Russia, Zabaikalsky Krai, Chita, P. Osipenko str., 21 forensics75@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Azovtsev Egor Mikhailovich Forensic Center of the Directorate Ministry of Internal Affairs for Novosibirsk region 630110, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Narodnaya str., 63 expert05-1@mail.ru

As practice shows, crimes related to fires are very difficult to solve and investigate, which is due to a number of both objective and subjective factors. The latter primarily include the problems of interaction between law enforcement agencies, whose competence includes conducting procedural checks on the facts of fires and investigating related crimes.

In accordance with Article 1 of Federal Law No. 69-FZ of December 21, 1994 "On Fire Safety", a fire is an uncontrolled gorenje causing material damage, harm to the life and health of citizens, the interests of society and the state. From a criminal legal point of view, a fire can be both a means of achieving a criminal goal (for example, Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Intentional destruction and damage to someone else's property), and the result of a criminal act or inaction (Article 219 of the Criminal Code "Violation of fire safety requirements").

B.A. Lukichev suggests dividing crimes related to fires into two groups:

1. criminal acts, where the element of the corpus delicti is fires that occurred as a result of violations of fire safety requirements and entailed criminal consequences;

2. other crimes, often accompanied by fires, or under certain circumstances capable of being associated with fires.

The first group includes crimes that occurred as a result of violation of the requirements of norms and rules of fire safety, as a result of careless handling of fire and entailed socially dangerous consequences, as well as crimes committed by deliberate destruction and damage to property, committed by arson ^{[1, p. 168]}.

The second group includes other types of crimes in which a fire can act as a qualifying sign of the method of committing a crime, for example, a murder committed in a socially dangerous way. It should also include such elements of crimes in which a fire is a kind of socially dangerous consequences that are not directly provided for by the disposition of the corresponding article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. One example of such crimes may be a violation of the rules of the road and the operation of vehicles, as a result of which a traffic accident occurs with the subsequent ignition of vehicles.

Thus, the list of crimes associated with fires is very extensive. In accordance with Part 6 of Article 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, investigators of the state fire supervision bodies (hereinafter referred to as the "GPS") of the federal fire service conduct a preliminary investigation in the form of an inquiry in criminal cases of crimes provided for in Article 168, Part 1 of Article 219, Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 261 of the Criminal Code. The main subject of investigation of other most common crimes related to fires are the internal affairs bodies (hereinafter referred to as the "ATS").

These crimes themselves have different criminalistic characteristics and their investigation cannot be carried out according to one general methodology. This is due to the close connection of criminalistic methodology and criminal law, which defines the boundaries of the existence of the methodology ^{[2, p. 16]}. Despite this, the methods of investigating crimes related to fires contain one common stage ? the establishment of the cause of the fire ^{[3, p. 9]}. It should be agreed with Ovsepyan G.M. and Korenyugin V.V. that it is particularly difficult to determine the cause of the fire and the circumstances of its occurrence, without which, as a rule, it is impossible to establish the signs of a crime and its qualification, to identify the perpetrators ^{[4, p. 223]}.

Indeed, as a rule, the qualification of crimes involving fires is complicated by the need to establish the cause of the fire by conducting a fire-technical examination. As you know, the chances of solving a crime are inversely proportional to the time that has elapsed since the crime, and therefore, the efficiency of collecting materials for the appointment of an examination and its conduct are important, and often crucial for solving a crime.

In practice , there are the following typical options for organizing initial actions after a fire

1. The message about the fire is received only by the GPS. In practice, this option is the most common. According to the Order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia dated May 2, 2006 No. 270 "On approval of the Instructions on the Procedure for Receiving, Registering and Verifying Reports of Crimes and Other Incidents in the Bodies of the State Fire Service of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters", an authorized official checks the crime report in accordance with with Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. In practice, this is expressed, as a rule, in visiting the fire site, conducting an inspection of the scene, interviewing eyewitnesses and participants in extinguishing the fire. Then, after establishing the cause of the fire, a procedural decision is made. If an official sees signs of a crime under investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs, a resolution is issued on the transfer of the investigation and the verification material is transferred to the internal affairs body by territoriality. As a result, taking into account the fire-technical expertise, a long time can be spent on this, which leads to the loss of forensic information that is significant for the disclosure of the crime.

At the same time, GPS officers, as a rule, during the inspection of the fire site, technical and forensic means for detecting and removing traces of the person who committed the crime are not used, only traces of thermal exposure and other signs indicating the cause of the fire are recorded. For example, in the protocols of the inspection of the scene of the incident, phrases such as "a track of shoe tracks has been found" may occur, which is a sign indicating arson, while measures for fixing and removing traces are not taken, the investigative task force of the Department of Internal Affairs (hereinafter referred to as the "SOG") with an official search dog to the scene to conduct an operation- search measures are not called. Of course, not in all cases the use of an official search dog gives a positive result, but such a measure should not be neglected ^{[5, p. 45]}. As a result, measures for the real disclosure and investigation of the crime are taken only after the receipt of the verification material to the internal affairs body, when all opportunities for the disclosure of the crime are literally lost in hot pursuit.

So, on November 3, 2021, a cell tower fire occurred in Chita. The cause of the fire was established by the investigator of the OND and PR in Chita UND and PR of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in the Trans-Baikal Territory independently, based on the results of an inspection of the scene, during which "remnants of bottles with traces of thermal exposure" were found. These remnants of bottles were regarded by the investigator as signs of arson, however, no measures were taken to remove them. The material of the procedural check was received by the territorial body of internal affairs under investigation on November 11, 2021. Upon departure to the scene of the incident, it was found that the situation at the scene had changed over the past time, and therefore it was not possible to remove any traces of a possible crime.

2. The message about the fire is received by both the GPS and the territorial Department of Internal Affairs. In this case, the departure to the fire site is carried out by both the GPS investigator and the SOG. At the same time, the inspection of the scene of the accident in most cases is carried out independently of each other, in connection with which, changes may be made to the situation of the scene by persons participating in the inspection conducted earlier. These changes are recorded during the second inspection, which leads to distortion of information about the situation at the scene and the impossibility of objectively determining the cause of the fire. When examining the scene of the incident conducted by the SOG, due to the lack of relevant knowledge of the Interior Ministry employees, attention is often not paid to the signs of the location of the fire and the manifestation of certain ignition sources, which leads to difficulties in determining the cause of the fire within the framework of the material of the procedural check conducted in the Department of Internal Affairs.

All this leads to two parallel procedural checks carried out in the GPS and ATS and, as a result, duplication of functions of departments and violation of the principle of objectivity.

For example, in 2018, there was a fire in the archive building of one of the mining enterprises of the Trans-Baikal Territory, the damage from which amounted to 18 million rubles. The initial inspection of the scene was carried out by the forces of the Department of Internal Affairs, during the inspection, elements of the power grid with signs of emergency modes of operation were found and removed. Some time after the departure of the SOG from the scene, a GPS investigator arrived. During his inspection of the scene of the accident, no traces of emergency modes of operation of the power grid were found by itself. Procedural checks on the fact of this fire were carried out both in the Department of Internal Affairs and in the GPS. According to both materials of the inspections, fire-technical examinations were appointed to determine the cause of the fire. According to the results of the examination appointed by the Department of Internal Affairs, it was concluded that the source of ignition is a thermal manifestation of an overload of the power grid, and during the examination according to the resolution issued by the investigator of the GPS, it was established that the cause of the fire was the introduction of an open fire source. The difference in the expert's conclusions led to the need to appoint a second examination in another region, before the end of which it was impossible to carry out any actions to identify the guilty person. All this has led to a delay in the investigation process and difficulties in forming the evidence base. Thus, the untimely arrival of a GPS employee and the lack of interaction between departments caused events that confused the course of the investigation.

3. The fire is reported only to the ATS. Such a scenario is possible when a fire is eliminated without the participation of fire protection units. Departure to the scene of the incident in this case is carried out by the forces of the SOG, which conducts an inspection of the scene and other initial actions. Further, in the vast majority of cases, the collected verification material is sent to the GPS body for making a legal decision. The direction of the material to the GPS is usually due to the false stereotype of the police officers about the need to conduct a fire check in the GPS and the lack of relevant knowledge.

After establishing the cause of the fire, a legal decision is made by a traffic police officer, including the verification material can be sent back to the Department of Internal Affairs under investigation. Considerable time passes before the receipt of the material of the procedural check in the Department of Internal Affairs and the initiation of a criminal case, as a result of which the identification of the perpetrators and the proof of guilt is difficult.

As an example, a garage fire located on the territory of a private household in a village can be cited. Zabaikalsk of the Trans-Baikal Territory, which occurred on October 1, 2016. The place of the fire was examined by the SOG, further inspection was entrusted to the district commissioner of the police, to whom the material was sent to the SBS to make the right decision. The investigator of the GPS body, based on the testimony of the owners of the household and the persons living there, stated that the cause of the fire was arson. On October 18, 2021, the inspection material on this fire was sent back to the Department of Internal Affairs, after which a fire technical examination was appointed to determine the cause of the fire.

When examining the inspection materials, the expert assumed that the daughter of the owner of the household was secretly smoking in the garage and put forward a version of the fire from the thermal effects of a smoldering tobacco product left for her at the scene. During the work on organizing an additional inspection of the scene with the participation of an expert of the ECC of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Trans-Baikal Territory, it was found that the garage was repaired, and all traces of thermal exposure were destroyed during the repair. In this regard, it was not possible to establish the cause of the fire in a categorical form, according to the results of the examination, it was concluded that a fire could occur from the thermal effects of both a smoldering tobacco product and an open fire source. Subsequently, a criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the person responsible for the fire was not identified.

Indeed, it is difficult to identify the person guilty of arson and prove his guilt if the fact of arson itself is in doubt, and the act may have been qualified incorrectly.

It follows from the above that the main disadvantages of the existing procedure for conducting procedural checks on the facts of fires are:

1. The lack of measures on the part of a GPS official to remove traces of a crime and identify the person responsible for the fire;

2. Inconsistency of actions during the initial measures during the fire inspection;

3. Partial duplication of functions of departments;

4. Lack of measures on the part of police officers to establish the cause of the fire;

5. Long-term preliminary inspection and considerable time for conducting fire-technical examinations.

All these shortcomings in their totality lead to low efficiency in the disclosure and investigation of crimes related to fires, and confirm the need to develop a single, optimal and effective mechanism for conducting procedural checks on the facts of fires.

In general, conducting a preliminary check on the fact of a fire can be conditionally divided into the following stages:

1. Initial work at the scene of the fire, including conducting an inspection of the scene, interviewing eyewitnesses of the fire;

2. Establishment of the cause of the fire, including through the appointment and conduct of fire-technical expertise;

3. Qualification of the incident taking into account the results of establishing the cause of the fire;

4. Making a legal decision.

As noted above, the key stages of the inspection are the initial work at the scene and the establishment of the cause of the fire. Mistakes made at these stages can no longer be corrected and negatively affect the results of the investigation, regardless of the qualification of the act. As practice shows, it is possible to avoid these mistakes only by carrying out joint painstaking work of GPS and ATS employees as carriers of knowledge in various industries — fire-technical, operational-investigative, forensic and procedural. In the existing realities, in most cases, only their joint work can achieve success in solving and investigating a fire.

In this regard, it is advisable to propose the following algorithm for the interaction of police officers and GPS during the initial stage of preliminary checks on the fact of fires.

If signs of a crime are detected after leaving the scene of a fire, an official of the SBS body must take measures to call employees of the operational and forensic units of the territorial Department of Internal Affairs to the scene of the incident to assist in examining the scene of the incident with the fixation and removal of traces of a possible criminal and carrying out operational search measures.

In case of departure to the fire site of the SOG in the absence of a GPS employee, it is advisable to organize his involvement as a specialist to assist in detecting and fixing thermal damage to the fire object. 

 After conducting an inspection of the scene of the incident, taking into account its results, it is advisable to put forward possible versions about the cause of the fire, based on which to select a list of types of crimes whose signs are seen, plan the procedure for checking them and determine further measures to establish the cause of the fire.

On the basis of the selected list of crimes to determine the further prospect of procedural verification. It is also logical to start working out the advanced versions "in hot pursuit".

As an example of the successful implementation of such a mechanism of interaction between GPS and ATS, it is appropriate to cite a house fire that occurred on March 30, 2021 in Novosibirsk. In the course of extinguishing the fire, the owners of the house informed the fire extinguishing manager about their suspicions of possible arson. The head of the fire extinguishing was called to the place of the SOG of the territorial Department of Internal Affairs, which inspected the scene with the involvement of the investigator of the GPS body. During the inspection of the scene near the house, traces of a car and traces of shoes were found and seized. According to the results of the inspection, among others, a version was put forward that was subsequently confirmed about a possible arson. In the course of working out this version, the officers of the operational police unit installed a car in the shortest possible time, the traces of which were seized, as well as information about its owner was obtained. In the course of further work, the involvement of the car owner in the arson of the house was proved, the criminal case was sent to court. According to the decision of the Dzerzhinsky District Court of Novosibirsk in a criminal case № 1-22/2022 (1-443/2021), as a result of the trial, a guilty verdict was handed down.

It is easy to imagine that in the event of an untimely departure of the SOG to the scene, the traces of the crime would have been lost, and the crime would not have been solved with a high degree of probability.

 It should be noted that this mechanism for conducting inspections on the fact of fires correlates to the necessary extent with the requirements of the Order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated March 31, 2003 No. 163/208 "On the procedure for interaction of management bodies and departments of the State Fire Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia with the internal Affairs bodies of the Russian Federation in the disclosure and investigation of crimes related to fires" and its implementation requires an appropriate constructive approach on the part of GPS and ATS to the execution of regulatory legal acts ^{[6, p. 229]}. The expected result of the application of the proposed interaction algorithm is to increase the effectiveness of the disclosure and investigation of crimes related to fires.