On January 28 the extended Board meeting devoted to the results of crime prevention, public order and public security maintenance in 2018 and current tasks was held in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Opening the meeting with the introductory speech, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Colonel General Ramil Usubov noted that in the result of the law-enforcement policy successfully carried on by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev public order and stability built upon the strong foundation were reliably protected in our country in 2018. Considerable work was done to further improve positive results achieved in previous years, and implementation of appropriate duties, state plan and programs was provided.
It was mentioned that the operational environment is fully under control and our country has been keeping its leading position among the CIS countries and Europe with the number of crimes per 100,000 inhabitants and is considered one of the most safe and stable states.
Further, Minister of Internal Affairs R.Usubov delivered his report and noted that 26,381 crimes were registered in 2018 through all government agencies which carry out operational and investigative activities. 84.7 per cent of these crimes were solved.

92.4 per cent of these crimes were investigated within the powers of the internal affairs bodies and prosecution agencies, 89.7 per cent of them were the crimes not posing great threat to public safety and minor offences, 24.3 per cent were grave and especially grave crimes, 3.1 per cent were attempted homicides, 16 per cent were intentional infliction of serious harm to health, 7.7 per cent were crimes against property, including 4.8 per cent robberies, 7 per cent were vehicle hijackings, 28 per cent were roguishness, as well as 2.2 per cent were offences committed by a group of persons, 4.5 per cent were offences committed as a result of household and family conflicts, the number of car accident victims decreased by 3.7 per cent and the number of persons injured in car accidents decreased by 0.5 per cent.

In the result of professional operating and investigative measures the detection rate increased: by 4.4 per cent for grave and especially grave crmes; by 0.8 for crimes against personality including attempted homicides (by 2.7 per cent); by 3.1 per cent for roguishness as one of crimes against property; by 1.3 per cent for robberies; by 0.7 for  brigandage; by 2.4 per cent for blackmailing offenses; by 6.2 per cent for vehicle hijackings; and by 2.5 per cent for hooliganism. 332 crimes unsolved in previous years were solved jointly with prosecution agencies.
Having touched upon the importance of application of information technology in timely prevention of offences, the speaker noted that in the result of prompt response measures taken on the information received by “102” Call Center, 1801 crimes were solved in hot pursuit and 9,435 offenses were prevented. It was mentioned that 566 crimes were solved and 20,480 traffic accidents were detected and 84 vehicles on the wanted list were stopped by means of the Safe City Service.

In general, solution of crimes as the main functions of the police was 85.5 per cent. 3794 accused persons who were fleeing from court, investigative and prosecution authorities were arrested that is 11 per cent more than in the comparison period.
The overall result of the search activities improved by 3.1 per cent and reached 74.5 per cent. The Minister also noted that in the result of operational and search activities, 869 criminal groups which committed 2277 crimes were neutralized in the reporting period, and 5 persons who exhibited resistance to police officers were destroyed.
In the result of measures taken against drug trafficking which is classified as a type of transnational organized crime, 1 ton and 136 kg of narcotic substances were withdrawn from illegal circulation and 45 criminal groups were neutralized. About 138 tons of illegally cultivated and wild plants of cannabis and poppy were detected and destroyed.
Consistent efforts were also made based on the National Action Plan in combating trafficking in persons. 144 facts of trafficking in persons and 4 facts of forced labor were detected, and 13 criminal groups of 28 persons were neutralized. 98 persons were reintegrated into the society within the scope of the work on protection, restoration of rights and social rehabilitation of trafficking victims.

31,539 criminal cases were in proceedings of investigators of the law enforcement agencies of the republic in the past year, and 80 per cent of them were in proceedings of the internal affairs bodies. The situation with indemnification of material damage caused to citizens improved by 2 per cent as compared with 2017 and reached 86.8 per cent.
It was noted in the report that over recent 6 years, noticeable decline in the road traffic accidents dynamics and decrease in the number of road accident victims were observed. The number of administrative road traffic-related offences detected in the reporting period increased by 1.3 per cent and was 3,409,698 offences. A total of 3,442,148 protocols on various administrative offences were made in the republic.

It was noted in the report that significant measures were taken to improve logistics, social protection of the personnel and service conditions in the Internal Troops in 20187 owing to special attention and care given by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Ilham Aliyev. It was also mentioned that the personnel of the Internal Troops, Mobile Police Regiment and territorial police departments worthily discharged all assigned tasks connected with the maintenance of public order and security during 735 public events including 489 republican and global events held in the country in the past year.

Colonel General Ramil Usubov noted that fulfillment of duties under the program set by the President in one of high-priority areas of the service - reception of citizens and consideration of their applications - was under continuous strict control and implemented consistently. 3639 citizens were received by the Ministry’s leadership including 1872 citizens in 64 towns and regions of the republic by announcing in mass media, and most of raised issues were solved in situ. In the result of the work carried out in this sphere, the number of complaints about wrongful acts of police officers decreased by 11 per cent.
The Minister expressed gratitude to citizens of the country, chiefs and employees of the law enforcement bodies and special service agencies, mass media and non-governmental organizations for their active assistance to the internal affairs bodies in fulfillment of service duties.

In his speech Assistant of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in coordination and military issues of the law enforcement agencies, Chief of the department Fuad Alasgarov mentioned the dynamic development of our republic carried on in 2018 under the leadership of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and noted that Azerbaijan successfully implement legal and democratic reforms in the republic, large-scale infrastructure projects and social programs following its independent path regardless of negative tendencies in the world and the region and global processes.
Mr. Alasgarov noted that the 100th Anniversary of the Azerbaijani Police our republic celebrated last year has become a significant event not only for the internal affairs bodies but for the whole Azerbaijani people and emphasized that President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev always highly appreciated the role and selfless service of the internal affairs agencies in maintenance of social and political stability and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms against crime, and at the same time mentioned necessary measures taken to further strengthen the logistics and improve living conditions and social protection of the personnel. He also added that the Azerbaijani Police is the main institution for protection of nationhood. Mr. Alasgarov noted that the personnel of internal affairs bodies played a significant role in maintenance of social and political stability in the republic as well as human and civil rights and freedoms, and at the same time mentioned excellent achievements in crime prevention which is based on day-and-night selfless service of the personnel. It was mentioned that the internal affairs bodies would further crack down on any violations and illegal act aimed at thrusting independent Azerbaijan into chaos and anarchy. Mr. Alasgarov brought to attention the importance of changes to the legislation and broader application of new information technology for improvement of service activities.

Minister of Internal Affairs of the Nahkchivan Autonomous Republic Fazil Alakbarov, Chief of the Main Police Headquarter of Baku City Mirgafar Seyidov, Chief of the Main Organized Crime Prevention Department Seyfulla Azimov, Chief of the State Traffic Police Department Ramiz Zeynalov, Chief of the Main Security Department Yashar Aliyev, and others delivered their reports on the work done in the reporting period and at the same time touched upon assigned tasks and specific measures to eliminate shortcomings in their activities.
Summarizing the meeting, the Minister noted that along with positive results achieved in 2018 there were certain shortcomings in territorial authorities which had a negative impact on their overall work, and drawn attention of the Board members to the necessity of a comprehensive analysis of such shortcomings and faults, ways of their elimination and current challenges as well as set targets, tasks and gave recommendations.
Next, the Minister spoke up on recent unlawful acts committed by destructive forces representing the radical opposition which intentionally provoked confrontation with the police by holding an allegedly coordinated meeting, seriously harmed the right of citizens to leisure, peace, stability and public order, and caused fear and confusion in people. He noted that wrong ideas like ‘the police is frightened’ or ‘the government is in retreat’ arising from a desire of certain representatives of the opposition to encourage their encirclement are very remote from reality and will never come true.

It was noted that every Azerbaijanian is proud of our nationhood built on the strong foundation created by Great Leader Heydar Aliyev on national interests and of achievements of our country which is now developing under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. It was this force that could terminate chaos and anarchy in recent 26 years, prevent aggression of Armenia against our country, restore violated human rights and revive confidence in the state, government and future. However, these antinational forces really experience fright, sadness and disappointment at the sight of continuous and consistent peace and stability in our republic, prosperity of the capital of our country Baku which beautifies day by day and becomes one of the finest cities in the world, settlement of problems of our citizens, especially refugees and displaced persons and families of shahids, growing strength of our army, high level of its training, fighting spirit and readiness to liberate the occupied lands, the bright future of our country embodied in hundred thousands of our young people, dynamic development of modern Azerbaijan, strong unity of people and government, the results of this unity which include development, prosperity, progress and growth. They attempt to return our republic to the period of internal dissent, disunity, crisis, tyranny and disorder once created by these forces in the country.

Colonel General R.Usubov stated that such adventurist acts inconsistent with national interests would continue to be prevented with the synergy of support of our people, power of our laws and resoluteness of our internal affairs bodies.
He emphasized that the internal affairs bodies would protect tranquility of all our citizens, regardless of political views and a position in society, and stability in our country against any threats, opportunists and trigger-happy politicians and saboteurs and would continue to prevent any unlawful acts.

He regretted that activities of such antinational and radical forces are in line with intentions and acts of our foreign ill-wishers who do not share ups and downs of our homeland and people. Mr. R.Usubov emphasized that our joy is happiness of our people, their living in peace, safety and prosperity and our path is the path of service to the nation and Homeland, the path of Heydar Aliyev.