The head of the State Inspectorate named the obstacles the police face when searching for missing people
The police must respond immediately to locate missing minors.
It is important to identify them and return them safely to the home or center from which they left, but the legal tools currently available to the police are not the most adequate to deal with such situations. The head of the General Police Inspectorate (GIP), Viorel Cernautanu, stated this at a public hearing in Parliament, reports ipn.md
The head of the State Inspectorate noted that mobile phone operators have every conversation and its transcript, while not a single government employee has access to these records and databases. It is necessary to fine-tune a mechanism so that in the event of disappearances of people, especially minors, the police have access to this data.
Viorel Cernautanu reported that when police officers receive a complaint from a family member about a missing person and there are technical capabilities to determine the location of the phone “without delay,” the police are faced with the lack of adequate legal tools. No mobile operator is willing to provide the ability to pick up the telephone transcript or phone range coverage of the person in question so that the police can determine his location.
“It turns out that we trust mobile operators more, who have all the conversations, communications and transcripts, and no government agency has access to these records and databases,” says Viorel Cernăutanu.
The head of the General Inspectorate of Police emphasized that video surveillance systems in public places also create obstacles to rapid investigations. Referring to the case of a young woman from Orhei, found lifeless in the Telenesti region, Viorel Cernautanu said that during the investigation, the police had limited access to video recordings in the Orhei region.
Some low-quality video footage was provided to law enforcement by a representative of the organization that manages the video system in Orhei. In critical situations at night, it is unlikely that people who own or operate video systems will be found, he said. The head of the State Inspectorate proposes that the police have access to all recordings from video systems located in public places.
“We must look at the whole problem of how to improve the system and what levers can help us all respond quickly and identify viable mechanisms that will help resolve such situations,” Viorel Cernăuţanu said at a public hearing on the state’s systemic response to exceptionally serious cases of violence and measures taken to protect women and girls in the Republic of Moldova.
Prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s Office Marianna Gornea noted that violence against women and girls in the Republic of Moldova, domestic violence remains a fairly serious problem. Despite the actions taken, cases leading to death still occur, such as the tragedy of the young woman from Orhei. The prosecutor’s office assures that the necessary criminal prosecution actions will be taken to comprehensively investigate all aspects of the circumstances of the case, collect evidence to establish the guilt of the offender, bring him to criminal responsibility and apply a punishment commensurate with the crime he committed, said Marianna Gornya.
In 2023, prosecutors sent 136 criminal rape cases to trial, and then, with the participation of prosecutors, the cases were tried in court with 98 prison sentences.