Vitebsk police propose to shorten the operating hours of nightclubs and bars

Vitebsk police propose to shorten the operating hours of entertainment venues (nightclubs, bars, etc.). This initiative was announced by Igor Skorinovich, Deputy Head of the Public Security Police of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Regional Executive Committee, at a joint meeting of the presidium of the regional council of deputies and the coordination meeting on combating crime and corruption in the region.

Igor Skorinovich emphasized that it is impossible to conduct effective preventive work regarding serious and particularly serious crimes against the life and health of citizens without eradicating factors that negatively affect public safety.

\"As a result of previously taken measures, one of these factors leading to the population's alcoholization and posing a serious threat to law and order has been effectively eliminated - the sale of alcohol at night in stores,\" noted the representative of the Internal Affairs Directorate. Currently, around-the-clock sale of alcoholic beverages is carried out only in one store in Lepel and at 43 gas stations in the region. \"These places, along with entertainment venues, create negative preconditions for committing offenses. Our position remains unchanged - it is necessary to prohibit the sale of alcohol at gas stations from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM. We also petition for shortening the operating hours of entertainment venues so that they close at midnight from Monday to Thursday and on Sundays,\" said Igor Skorinovich.

He justified this position by the fact that the police receive several hundred calls quarterly about violations.

public order, causing bodily harm, and committing property crimes in similar entertainment venues and their adjacent territories. In addition, about 50 troublemakers are brought to territorial departments weekly for various offenses committed in such places, half of whom are in a state of severe alcohol intoxication. The head of the internal affairs department of the regional executive committee, Viktor Senko, also emphasized that crimes against life and health of citizens are mainly committed on the grounds of drunkenness (more than 70% of murders are committed by persons who were in a state of alcohol intoxication).

"In a state of intoxication, a person is prone to fits of uncontrollable aggression, sudden quarrels arise, and everything ends in tragedy. This is simply impossible to prevent. It is impossible to reduce the number of serious bodily injuries without solving the problem of drunkenness," he is convinced. Developing the topic of restricting the operating hours of nightclubs and bars, the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate noted that monitoring reveals a huge number of violations in such establishments. "There are also complaints about the work of security guards, who simply escort troublemakers out the door without reporting fights to the police. As a result, we get hooliganism, robbery, banditry," stated Viktor Senko. "There are about 10 such establishments, one of the most problematic is the cafe-club 'Sobranie'.

We asked them to restore order, but they did not listen to us." Alexander Poznyak, Assistant to the President - Chief Inspector for the Vitebsk Region, who participated in the meeting, noted that the founders and managers of such establishments should rectify the situation. "They should report information about crimes and other violations, give time for correction. And if this does not yield results, then the local executive bodyhas the right to shorten the establishment's operating hours," said Alexander Poznyak.

Alena Tikhonova - BELTA.