Moscow: Police officers in Russia will now be checked on lie detectors and the refusal to be tested could spoil their future career, the Interior Ministry said.
"The polygraph testing is a voluntary thing, and the candidate has the right to refuse, but a refusal can raise questions from the members of the certifying committee and be an indirect reason of the refusal to be hired in the police force," said Lt Gen Yury Draguntsov, head of the ministry`s internal affairs division.
The polygraph test and certification of police officers is part of the ongoing ministry`s police reform that includes changing the name of law enforcers from "militia" to the internationally accepted word "police".
This would also include cutting the number of policemen by 20 percent, while increasing salaries for those who remain.
Draguntsov said every fifth police officer "could fail" the certification since the ministry has "defamatory information" concerning some of them.
"According to preliminary results, at least 15-20 percent of the police heads may fail the certification and be expelled from the police force," he said.
He said Russian police officers have committed over 50,000 delinquencies in their duties, including 2,000 crimes, since the start of the year.
Most of the crimes were linked with traffic police officers and migration police.
IANS
